The Void
by Hairann
Summary: Kagome and Sesshoumaru's lives are turned upside down after being sucked into Miroku's wind tunnel, leaving them in a world of total darkness. And the events that occurred in the void, changed them forever. Noms: best drama/best lemon scene 3Q dokuga Done
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Follows: The Anime and movies.

"spoken" 'thought'

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AN: Welcome to my other new story. If you haven't already, please check out the other, Warriors of the West. I know some of these chapters will probably be rather small, but Warriors is rather large and don't want to do two long stories at the same time. Heads up, most of the story happens in flashback form. It may not make sense now to do it that way, but it will at the end of this story. Enjoy. :)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 1:

My name is Kagome Higurashi. On my 15th birthday I was pulled into an old well on my family's shrine by a centipede demon who was after the Shikon no Tama that rested within my body, and transported 500 years into the past. I hadn't even known the jewel was there until it was ripped out of my side. While I was running away from the demon, I met a half-demon by the name of Inuyasha who was bound to a tree by a sacred arrow fired by a priestess 50 years earlier after they were tricked by an evil half-demon.

My life went from a perfectly normal, high school girl life to fighting demons, collecting shards and running around the feudal era in mere moments. Not long after I had released Inuyasha from the God Tree and he had destroyed the demon, I wound up shattering the Shikon no Tama when I was trying to stop a crow demon from stealing it. What seemed like such a small thing, quickly turned into one of the worst mistakes I could have ever made.

Over the next year I met an interesting group of people, most of which ended up becoming good friends of mine.

First was Shippo, a young fox demon who was orphaned when his father was killed by the Thunder Brothers, whom were after a shard of the jewel. Then there was Miroku, a perverted monk who was chasing down Naraku, the half-demon responsible for Inuyasha getting bound to the tree, who was also the one behind the wind tunnel curse on his hand. Next came Sango, the last of the demon slayers from her village after Naraku used her younger brother to kill her fellow slayers and wiped out her entire village. Along with her came Kirara, a cat demon, when she joined our group. Though the members of our little group stopped there, over the years that I was living in the past, I met many others that helped to shape my life there.

There was Kouga, a wolf prince that believed me to be 'his woman' after kidnapping me and learning that I could sense the shards. And there was Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's older half-brother, the annoying little toad demon Jaken that followed him around, and the adorable human girl Rin that joined them. I may never know why the little girl followed around a demon known as the 'Killing Perfection' or why the human-hating demon would allow a young girl to follow him, but that's how it was.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, it's time I get on with my story. It was not long after we had gotten trapped in the stone demon's belly. We had the entire jewel accounted for even if it wasn't whole again. Two were with Kouga, one in each leg. One in the back of Kohaku's neck. The shard we found in Inutashio's tomb remained in my possession, while Naraku held onto the rest of the jewel. We were still following his trail when this story begins.

Flashback:

The morning started just as many before it had, bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. We'd sat around the campfire while Sango and I had prepared breakfast. Talking about what shard rumors we had heard about, what the plans for the day was. Miroku groped Sango, Sango slapped him. Shippo stole one of Inuyasha's fish, Inuyasha chased him around the clearing. Same old thing.

We ran into two demons that day, neither of which were much of a fight since they didn't have any shards, but like always, they were after the one I had. We quickly destroyed them and continued on down the road. Evening was approaching and we had been complaining to Inuyasha for the last half hour that we wanted to stop, but he wanted to get more walking in before doing so.

I was just about to 'sit' him, when everything went wrong. He had been arguing with Shippo when he froze in mid-step and his entire body went on high alert. Before we had the chance to ask what was wrong, Sesshoumaru appeared before us, followed closely by his companions. "What do you want, you bastard?!" Inuyasha demanded, showing his usual tactlessness.

"With you half-breed, nothing," Sesshoumaru replied evenly as he looked down his nose at his half-brother before continuing the way he had been going again. It seemed we would get past this encounter unscathed, as long as Inuyasha held his tongue anyways. But just as his group was about to pass our's, all hell broke loose. For once, not caused by Inuyasha.

"Miroku, what's wrong?" Sango inquired, her voice brimming with worry, causing the rest of us to turn to where the two of them were standing. Sango was leaning over Miroku's collapsed body as he held on tightly to his arm. I could feel something ominous on the air and knew without a doubt, something big was about to happen.

"Run!" Miroku screamed, his voice cracking, as he glanced up at the rest of us with fear-filled eyes. Just as we went to follow his command, his arm shot up, exposing us to the wind tunnel. "Run now!" he screamed again as he tried to get some control over it. Everyone rushed away from him, but Rin. She stood, frozen in fear, in her spot.

I could see the wind pick up and she began to be dragged toward the wind tunnel. Without thinking, I tossed Shippo to Inuyasha's arms and rushed toward the little girl. Ramming my body hard into her own, I sent her flying out of the way just as Sesshoumaru had arrived to try and save her himself. Unable to stop ourselves, we crashed into each other and lost our balance. Before I even knew what had happened, we had been sucked into the wind tunnel.

* * *

"Kagome!" Inuyasha screamed as the others looked on in disbelief. Kagome and Sesshoumaru had just been sucked into Miroku's wind tunnel, and if something wasn't done soon, Miroku would soon join them. Without a moment's pause, Inuyasha drew his sword and raced over to where Miroku was still standing.

With one quick swipe, his arm had been severed from his body and landed on the ground, blood beginning to pour from it. Sheathing his sword, Inuyasha ripped the sleeve from Miroku's robes and began tying off what was left of his arm. Walking away from the others, as Sango rushed to Miroku's side, Inuyasha withdrew his sword again.

"Wind scar!" Inuyasha screamed as he aimed the attack toward the ground a little way in front of him and away from the others. Sheathing his sword again, he quickly made his way back over to Miroku's severed arm. Picking it up, he held it facing away from everyone and rushed over to the crater he had made with his attack.

Dropping the arm into the crater, Inuyasha turned and began making his way back to the others. "We'll set up camp here for now, he shouldn't be moving until the bleeding stops. No one, and I mean no one, goes near that crater," Inuyasha insisted as he turned to glare at Jaken. Jaken gave him a quick nod of understanding as Rin held onto him crying.

"What do we do about Kagome?" Shippo inquired, his voice cracking as he glanced up at Inuyasha. The question got Rin's attention as well and she turned to him awaiting his response. She knew that whatever they did to help their friend would in turn help Lord Sesshoumaru as well, even if that wasn't their intention.

"Shippo, there's nothing we can do. They're dead. Kagome's not coming back," Inuyasha explained with a heavy heart and Shippo began shaking his head in denial. Tears began streaming down his cheeks as he demanded Inuyasha do something to bring her back. Inuyasha wrapped his arms around the kit, pulling him into his lap as he tried to comfort him in the only way he knew how.

"I'll make lunch," Sango whispered, tear tracks already visible on her cheeks, after she had Miroku resting peacefully. Inuyasha gave her a quick nod before turning to glare at Jaken, who quickly got the message and began helping her. Now left alone, Rin quickly climbed into Inuyasha's lap next to Shippo and began crying into his haori.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? The next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depths of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. Or put at ease. You are pulled into a world that no words can ever truly begin to convey to others, something you would have to see for yourself in order to understand just how life changing and horrifying it really is.

This has happened to me twice now. The first time I was brought back in time through the well, thrown into a world I had only ever read about in fiction novels. A world of magic, mystery and mythological creatures. And while that world was new and scary at first, from the beginning I was surrounded by people to help me adjust and get on with my life. This time, however, help was not really an option.

This time when I was pulled into that void, I had but one to help me adjust or survive even. And he was not about to begin lending me a helping hand. He could care less if I were to sink into a pit of despair and feel as though the ground was trying to swallow me up. Had it done so, I am quite sure now even as I had been then, he would have merely watched as it happened, never once even contemplating lifting a finger to aid.

Truly I cannot fault him for this, it is merely his nature. As much as I have wanted to hate his very being over the many years, I have always found myself unable. It didn't matter that he had tried to kill me in the past, that when I was most afraid he did little more than scoff in my general direction, or the fact that years down the road, when I needed him the most, he wasn't there. It was simply his nature.

And I could no more change him than I could move the vast mountain side. Even though he had been more of an outsider looking in on my predicament rather than acting like he was in the same boat I was, I was still glad to have him there by my side. I cannot imagine what that time would have been like had I been truly alone, but as it was already dark and desolate with him there, I have no desire to discover the alternative.

Flashback:

My first thought upon regaining consciousness was that I was dead, gone to meet my maker in the next life. The next was that I had gone blind for no explainable reason. Needless to say, I was quite panicked when I opened my eyes and could see nothing. It wasn't that there was nothing around, I couldn't see any of my friends or any landmarks nearby that I knew. There was just nothingness. I was surrounded by pitch black darkness which seemed to be suffocating me.

And of course fate seemed to think this wasn't enough to drive me insane, for not a moment after opening my eyes, I felt a movement beside me. My body reacted before I was able to even think who it could have been and a bright pink light ballooned around me. Not a moment later, a clawed hand was around my throat, cutting off my air supply.

"Cease and desist, human, or this Sesshoumaru shall do it for you," a deep, masculine voice informed me from somewhere in front of me. Him being there did little to put me at ease, but nonetheless, I nodded my head to his demand. He held on for a moment before finally letting go of my throat and I reached my hand up to rub away the soreness.

"What happened?" I questioned as I glanced to where I thought he might be sitting, or perhaps standing by now. He seemed disinclined to answer and the silence once again reigned over us. Sighing, I tried to think back on the last thing I remembered. My mind was a bit fuzzy at first, but slowly the events of the day began to replay in my mind.

I remembered him showing up and Inuyasha starting to yell at him. Miroku screaming for us to run, Rin frozen in fear as the... The wind tunnel! We had been sucked up into Miroku's wind tunnel when we tried to save Rin after it went out of control. Was Miroku alright? Was he consumed by the wind tunnel as well? I wondered and allowed my senses to search my surroundings, no Miroku.

"This Sesshoumaru is quite sure he told you to cease calling out your powers, human," Sesshoumaru reminded me, his voice startling me. I had been trying to figure out if it was a good or bad thing that Miroku wasn't here with us. Perhaps he had survived the wind tunnel, or he went somewhere else. Or worse even, the others could be watching as it slowly sucked him into oblivion.

"Sorry, I was just checking to see if Miroku was with us. I'm going to take it as good news that he's not. Perhaps the others found a way to save him from his wind tunnel. Sesshoumaru, can you sense anything around us?" I inquired as I pulled my backpack off of my shoulder and began rummaging through it in search of my flashlight.

Once again I was answered by silence. "Fine. Lord Sesshoumaru, can you please be so kind as to use some of your abundant powers to see if there is perhaps anything else nearby?" I tried again, all the while grumbling in my mind about annoying, obnoxious demons.

"There is nothing but darkness," he replied after a minute and the silence reigned down on us once again. Sighing, I continued going through my over-sized bag until I had found what I was looking for and pulled it out.

"You may want to cover your eyes Lord Sesshoumaru, it's about to get very bright," I warned him and waited for a moment to give him time, before I hit the switch and a bright beam of light illuminated from the flashlight. Too bad I didn't think to warn myself since I was now temperately blind. Rubbing my eyes, I waited for the spots to clear before opening them again to fine a very annoyed demon glaring at me.

"Hey, I warned you," I reminded him before turning my attention to the bag at my feet and began checking to see what supplies I had. "I should have enough supplies for about a month for the two of us as long as we don't overdo it. Though I doubt we'll survive in here that long to need it anyways," I grumbled as I glanced up and found him still glaring at me, only this time one eyebrow was raised in question.

"Miroku just sucked up a demon two days ago. If you can't sense any other demons here, logic says we've got less then two days, before what I'm not really sure, but something tells me it's not going to be good," I explained with a shrug as I fought off the doubt and worry that was beginning to worm its way into my mind.

"That is not necessarily true. This..." he paused to gesture in the air with his hand, "place is more vast than even I can sense. It is possible other demons are simply out of my range," he informed me before turning to stare off into the darkness just outside of my flashlight's range. I am unsure if his words were a comfort or more reason to worry.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

* * *

Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 3

Nightmares, dreams, myths, reality. There are times in your life when the lines between them blur and you cannot tell fact from fiction. Where the impossible is reached daily and the mundane aspects of your every day life are faded into the background. Where you can not separate friend from foe. Where the ones you have always depended on cannot come to your aid and you are left only with the ones you knew you could never count on.

It can change your whole way of thinking, bringing to light new and once-thought impossible ideas. Causing you to turn to, to lean on, depend on what was once thought to bring about naught but death and destruction. Your views, opinions, thoughts, dreams, and morals are stripped from you before you ever realize you are in danger of losing them. Leaving you with nothing to hold onto during the dark nights.

When you are trapped inside a world of total darkness, an empty plane of existence, you quickly learn that in order to survive, sometimes your enemy must become your ally. In a world you are both trapped within, the past no longer matters, the future is unimportant. It is the present that you must put foremost in your mind. The past cannot be changed. The future cannot be seen. If you wish to live long enough to make it out of your self-proclaimed hell, then the present is where you must put your energy.

I managed to realize all of this within the first few hours of being stuck there with him. He, however, did not see any use of myself, I was no more than a speck of dirt on his boot. As degrading for me as it was, truthfully I can understand his point of view. The strong did not turn to the weak in their hour of need to ask for their assistance. The strong knew and understood that only the strongest could survive. That you couldn't get through life depending on others every time things became unmanageable.

The strong knew and understood that you had to be self-reliant and independent in order to survive and live your every day life with the least amount of difficulties. But on the other side of the scope, the weak understood that there was no shame in asking for help and being able to admit you needed it made you strong. That sometimes in order to survive you had to work with others, each taking on a small part of the task so none would be overburdened.

I am not a weak woman, unless you compare me to my companion at least, but my strength lies not in my hands or my bow. My strength is of the mind, the spirit, the heart. My strength is that which you cannot see simply by looking at my outward appearance. Anyone can pick up a sword and take another's life. It is those that are willing to understand that death is not always the answer that carry with them true strength.

They are, of course, seen as weak by those that would sooner take another's life than be seen as 'weak', but the truth is, they couldn't be more wrong. While I understand that there is not always an alternative, a way to prevent both your death and that of the one you are taking, it remains that the truly strong will always try to find another way. He understood none of this, everything was a foreign concept to him, and I doubt even now he understands.

To him, our time spent there was nothing more than an annoyance. While sleep brought me nightmares of never seeing my friends or family again, he simply stared off into the darkness as he probably did any other night. He kept his mind on finding a way out and stood strong. The fear and panic of never seeing my loved ones again caused me to set my mind on finding a way out.

Who was weak, who was strong, I am unsure if I will ever truly know. We both took a different path, but ended up at the same conclusion: that no matter what, we had to make it back to the other side. Was either path the right one? The wrong one? Did it even really matter?

Flashback

It had already been two days, but with the complete darkness and little to do to pass the time, my mind could not fathom such a short time. I was quite sure it had been a week at the very least, but my watch quickly proved otherwise. And of all the people I could have been stuck here with, it just had to be Sesshoumaru. I realize it could have been worse: it could have been Naraku and I would have been dead.

But truthfully I am unsure if that really would have been a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to die, but wouldn't a quick death be better than a slow and agonizing one? In two days he has spoken not a word to me since he explained that he couldn't sense anything. While two days does not seem like much to go without speaking in the long run, to me, two days, when there is nothing else to do besides sleep or stare off into the pitch black darkness, two days is an endless hell.

It wasn't for lack of trying on my part either. I had many times tried to start up a conversation with him to help pass the time. I tried every subject I could think of: science, history, philosophy, current affairs, war strategies, even the hunt for Naraku. I was careful never to bring up the subject of Inuyasha, figuring he would not want to talk about his half-brother and would more than likely kill me for mentioning his name.

The most I would get out of him was what my mind conjured up as a dark glare, seeing as I couldn't actually see his expression, but I believe it is safe to assume that was what he did. It wasn't long before I had had enough of things and decided to take matters into my own hands. I had no desire to spend, what could very well be, the last few days of my life just sitting around in this void staring off into the darkness. It may be futile in the end, but I was determined to do everything in my power to try and get out of this place.

The want and need to see my friends and family again drove me to do something I could have never imagined doing before. Turning to Sesshoumaru for help. "Alright, Sesshoumaru. Just sitting around like this isn't going to get us anywhere. I want to get out of this hell and I can only assume that you do as well, so I think it's time we put our heads together and begin coming up with ways to get out."

"Tell me human, why would I, Sesshoumaru, wish to work with you? You have nothing which to offer in my aid, had I needed it to begin with. I do not recall ever implying that I would need your help," His cold, unfeeling voice echoed in the darkness around us causing me to unconsciously shiver.

"There is absolutely no reason for you to help me, Sesshoumaru. I have no doubt that you could figure out a way to get out of here all on your own; however, I also know that my best chances of ever seeing the light of day again is rely on getting your help. I have no desire to spend the rest of my life trapped here and with or without your help I will do everything in my power to get out. But I am not fool enough to believe that it would be easier on my own."

Getting no response from him, I pulled my bag over and with a sigh, began rummaging through it for something to eat. Getting my hands on a snack bar, I quickly pulled it out and began unwrapping it. "Would you like one? It's a snack bar, made with real fruit. Though I'm guessing you would prefer meat, I'm afraid I can't help you there." Again he declined responding and shaking my head, I took a bite.

"I realize this food probably isn't what you are used to, but you can't go forever without eating can you? Wouldn't something, even if it's human food and considered beneath you, be better than going hungry?" I inquired, not really expecting an answer from him, so I was shocked when he replied.

"I can go two seasons without eating. I had just hunted before this. Eating would only be a waste." His reply wasn't much, but at the same time I did learn something new. With the way Inuyasha and Shippo eat, I never would have imagined that demons could go that long without eating. Then again, perhaps it was just Taiyoukai that could go for six months without eating.

* * *

I had been having a strange dream, one of those that you know tell you something important, but the moment you awake you can't remember what it was or what happened in the dream. All that you are left with are feelings, something ticking at the back of your mind, telling you you're forgetting something, but not telling you what that is. I've had the same dream the last two nights as well. I may not remember what happens, but I always wake up with the same feeling.

This morning was different though. Just as I was taking the first bite of my snack bar, I realized just what it was that my dreams and mind had been trying to tell me. How I didn't realize it before, I have no idea, but there was no denying its importance. It was just what we needed to get out of this hell and return to the real world.

"Shard!" I shouted as I stood and glanced around the darkness around me, my eyes darting from one spot to another in the pitch, blackness. "Stop trying to see with your eyes," I mumbled to myself as I closed my eyes and let my senses flow out around me. I could hear Sesshoumaru growling at me, but chose to ignore him for the moment. Finally, just as I was sure he was about to kill me, I pinpointed the shard's location.

"It's that way," I told him pointing, not caring at that moment if he could see my hand or not. "If we follow the shard we should be able to get out of here. All the pieces of the jewel are accounted for, so I know Miroku couldn't have accidentally sucked one of them up. So the shard must be outside of this place," I explained excitedly, not caring if he was listening to me or not.

"I do not see anything in that direction," Sesshoumaru replied after a moment causing me to jump slightly. Nodding my head, as my mind supplied me with what I needed to do, I reached down and picked up my backpack. Throwing it over my shoulders, I turned back to where I was pretty sure Sesshoumaru was.

"I say we head that way anyways. You'll probably be able to see something once we get closer. And yeah, I know that if you want, you can stay here, or go a different way. I'm not telling you to come with me, merely giving you the option," I paused to see if he was going to respond and after a moment of silence I decided to continue.

"The way I see it, we can do this one of three ways: one, we can walk at my speed, or pretty close to it at least; two, you can carry me on your cloud; or three, you can take off without me. How would you like to proceed?" After questioning him, I turned away from what I figured was his general direction, to face toward the shard.

"We shall walk. I have no desire to touch you." he told me and I could hear the rustle of his clothing as he stood and began walking in the direction I felt the shard in. Smiling at my victory, tiny as it may be, I held onto the straps of my backpack and began jogging to catch up with his long strides.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

* * *

Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

* * *

Chapter 4

In the void, when time seems to have slowed to a crawl for you, the outside world is still moving at its normal pace. Day becomes night which becomes day again. Time marches on. People go about their lives. Though the loss of you may make a difference in their life in the beginning, eventually they move on. It's not that they don't care about you or that they no longer miss you, the living simply must go on living.

And to them, you are dead. Perhaps it is easier for them this way. Believing you are dead rather than stuck in an endless void, always wondering if today would be your last day here, your last day alive. Even when I was stuck in that void, I was constantly hoping that they think me dead and were moving on with their lives. There was no guarantee that I would ever get out and I would not want them to suffer so if I did not.

I have always thought hope was an amazing thing. It had gotten me through many hard times in my life when the deck was stacked against us and it looked like we wouldn't survive the battle. Hope was always there to hold my hand and tell me everything would be alright, if I just had a little faith. A little faith in my friends, in myself, in the Kami. And I always did. No matter how bad things got, I had faith in Inuyasha to bring us through it.

It's strange now how hope and faith seem to be against me. I wanted nothing more than for them to give up on me. If I made it out it would be a great surprise, but if I didn't? It would kill them. It was bad enough for them to lose me once, but imagine holding onto the hope of seeing me again for so long only to have it never come to pass. I would never wish that pain on anyone. I know that pain, I have felt it myself many years ago.

My father. My father's disappearance brought me that pain. I hoped night after night, week after week, year after year that he would return and tell us it was all a mistake. That the police had gotten it wrong. All they had to go on was a blood stain in his office, perhaps he had simply cut his head. Head wounds tend to bleed quite profusely, even if they are nothing more than a scratch. And as the years went by I kept right on believing that it was all a mistake.

Kept the hope alive that he was out there somewhere, wanting to come back and explain it to us, but unable to for our safety. I kept that hope alive in myself, in my brother and eventually even my mother started to believe. And it hurt all the more when they discovered his remains at a housing construction site. To this day, we remain in the dark about what happened.

Hope is false. Hope is useless for the things that really matter. For the little things, sure, hope all you want. But for the important moments in your life, don't bother hoping. It is far better to expect the worst and not be disappointed. At least that way, if everything does work out, you will get a nice surprise out of it. But if being trapped within that void taught me anything, it is that hope is hugely overrated.

Flashback

"Jaken on duty now?" Sango inquired as she glanced up and spotted Inuyasha making his way back into the small camp they had erected about five minutes away from the spot that Miroku's severed arm lay. The evening sun was setting behind him as he gave her a brief nod before moving to sit next to the camp fire where she was currently preparing dinner.

"How's he doing?" Inuyasha questioned as he gestured toward the sleeping man behind Sango before turning his attention to the meal she was making. Sango glanced over her shoulder to check on Miroku before turning back to dinner, giving Inuyasha a slight shrug.

"Truthfully? I have no idea. Kagome was always better at this healing stuff than I was. He seems to be holding on for now, but who knows what's going to tip that balance. He hasn't woken up in two days and the only reason I was able to help him as much as I have was because I still had Kagome's first aid kit from earlier that day. Right now, your guess is as good as mine. We need Kagome, she would know the best way to help him."

"Well, we're just gonna have to figure out some way to do this without her. They're gone and they're not coming back. And sitting around moping about it won't do us any good and Kagome wouldn't want us to. I realize that this might make me sound like a complete ass, but we still have a quest to finish. And right now we're sitting ducks. Soon as Miroku is well enough we need to get out of here. Even if we only go as far as the well. I need to go tell her family anyways."

"But don't you think there might be a chance that she some how survived? Have a little faith. If anyone could find their way out of this it would be Kagome. After all these years do you still not have any faith in her ability?!" Sango demanded as she shot to her feet and pinned Inuyasha with one of her fiercest glares, causing the children, who were playing off to the side, to jump.

"Don't you think I want to believe that she'll be back?! Damn it, Sango she's my best friend! The first real one I've ever had and she wouldn't be gone if I had been able to do my job and protect her! I have more faith in Kagome than I've ever had in myself! But even if she some how managed to survived getting sucked into his fucking wind tunnel," Inuyasha shouted, gesturing toward the still unconscious Miroku, "she's stuck in there with that bastard Sesshoumaru!

"Even if by some fucked up stroke of luck she is still alive, how long do you think she's going to last before she annoys Sesshoumaru to the point he kills her?! Hell, with that bastard it would only take a moment, one look and he would slit her throat. But none of that matters because they are dead! She's not coming back and the sooner you accept that, the sooner we can all move on!" Turning, Inuyasha stormed out of the camp, his appetite forgotten about.

"I'm afraid he is most likely correct, an insensitive ass, but correct all the same." Miroku informed the others, startling them. Sango stopped glaring at Inuyasha's back and rushed over to check on him. Making sure he was alright, at least as well as he could be, Sango concentrated on what he had said.

"What do you mean Miroku? What makes you so sure he's correct and that she's dead?" Sango demanded as she stood up and towered over him. The intimidation had no effect on him as he had still yet to open his violet eyes.

"Nothing has ever come back out from my wind tunnel. No demon nor plant nor rock. Once you have been sucked up, that's it. And as much as I would love to tell you that she will find a way out, and I do believe that if anyone could it would be her, she's gone, Sango. I'm afraid we all need to accept that. No matter how difficult it may be."

"I don't...can't...I won't accept that, Miroku. I refuse to lose her too. I have lost too many of my loved ones, my family, to just give up like that. There's nothing to say that someone can't come back! You've sucked up mindless demons and rocks, neither of which had the brains to do anything about it. She does! She will get out of there and she will be back, just you watch!" Sango vowed before she too turned and stomped out of the camp, in the opposite direction Inuyasha had taken.

"Do you really think Kagome isn't gonna come back?" Shippo inquired softly as he began making his way over to Miroku, who was trying to sit up. After failing twice, he finally gave up and just laid back down.

"As much as I would want to put your little heart at ease and tell you she will, it's just not possible, Shippo. Kami, I just want to tell you so much that everything will be alright, that she'll be back before you know it, but it would only hurt you further in the long run when that doesn't happen."

"Why did your wind tunnel have to mess up anyways? It's not fair!" Shippo insisted and he dropped to the ground next to Miroku as his tears began anew. Reaching out, Miroku placed his hand on Shippo's head and tried to give him what little comfort he could.

"It was just time for me, Shippo. Because of the rip, my time was cut short and it should be me that's dead. It should have been me that was sucked up and for that I am sorry." Miroku told him before glancing over at Rin. "If I could change it, I would in a heartbeat."

"Why does Inuyasha have to be so mean though? He says he cares, but he sure doesn't act like it. Sango's hurting, we all are, and all he can do is yell at her. Telling us we need to leave soon, can't he give us any time to grieve?" Shippo demanded crossing his arms against his chest.

"Shippo, you've got to understand where Inuyasha's coming from and while he may not seem like it, he's grieving more than the rest of us. I know he comes off harsh, but he has to or he will be overcome by his grief and he won't be any good to us. Everyone grieves differently, some cry, some get angry and some become shells of their former selves. Even if he wanted to, Inuyasha couldn't cry; his life and ours depends on him being strong and so he uses anger to deal with the pain."

"What do you mean he's grieving more than us? Kagome may be his best friend, but she was family to us. To some of us, the only family we've got left," Shippo told him, unable to understand the big picture with his childish mind.

"We lost Kagome, they lost Sesshoumaru," Miroku paused to gesture over at Rin. "Inuyasha lost his best friend, the first and probably only person to ever truly accept him and he lost his brother, who was probably his only living relative, at least that he knew of. And true they didn't get along, but as Kagome said 'blood is thicker than water.' We lost our friend, our loved one. They lost their lord and protector. And Inuyasha? He just lost everything."

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

AN: This will be the last chapter posted this month, gonna be leaving for the states for the last 10 days on the month but I should have chapters ready to be sent to my betas once I return.

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Chapter 5

Time is a fickle thing. And not just traveling through it or getting used to the different times. It's the passing of time that really gets to me. You can be absolutely sure you know how much time has passed, but there in the void, you'll never be right. Time has no meaning there, it doesn't exist. There's no sunrise to mark the beginning of a new day, no sunset to mark its end. No one cooking breakfast to wake up to in the morning. No lunch to mark the middle of the day and time to rest.

No one complaining they are hungry and it's time for dinner to tell you it will soon be time to sleep. You can't really understand just how much being there throws off your senses until you experience it, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. The void, it screws with your mind. Everything is off balance and nothing is as it seems. It's wrong, it's backwards, it's upside down. Flipped or rearranged to the point that it doesn't even remotely resemble what it used to be.

And it's not just time that is messed up in the void. It's your reactions, your thought process, doing things you never would have imagined doing before you even know you're doing them. It doesn't make any sense, it didn't then either. I was so sure that I had to be hallucinating, trapped within the fantasies of my own mind. Or perhaps I was losing my mind. That would have made more sense, would have been more plausible than the truth.

Truth. That's another thing the void screws with. If you can't see it, and you can't see anything in pitch darkness, is it really the truth? How can it be the truth? How, when it goes against everything you have ever known, ever believed about someone? It can't be both ways, fact and fiction. Right and wrong. Hallucination and reality. Some things don't happen, they just don't, so how could they have? How could something impossible, something inconceivable, something contrary to all reason have been reality?

Fate. Perhaps it was Fate guiding what happened that night, weaving its own path of destiny so we could end up where we were supposed to. Keeping us on track of what was meant to be, supposed to happen, predestined even, no matter how strange or false that destiny may have seemed. And if it was Fate, if it was Destiny, what in the world was the writer of that story thinking? Let's see how much we could possibly screw things up?

And why? What was Fate's reasoning? His? Why did our paths converge at that very moment? What went into making that decision? Did they know where the path would end and yet they still chose it? Did they even care or is my life, my destiny, just someone's idea of a joke? I don't mean to say that I regret everything about the end of my path, but wasn't there another way? A different path I could have taken, one which would have still given me the destiny that night did, without causing a void to follow me the rest of my days?

Flashback

For the last week we had been traveling in a straight line. Walking day and night with very little sleep in between. But I didn't mind the walking so much, I was already used to it. It was the fact that we never really seemed to get any closer to the shard. Almost as if each step we took, our foot landed in the same spot as the step before. Walking in place. That was what it felt like. The presence of the shard never felt stronger to me and Sesshoumaru still couldn't see or sense anything else besides us.

I figured that perhaps we were just moving too slow, that we need to move at least at a certain speed to counteract whatever it was working against us. One night instead of sleeping, I moved away from Sesshoumaru and began calling out my powers. It took many hours and many failed attempts, but in the end it was worth it. I had managed to create a small cloud of my powers, much like Sesshoumaru's and would now be able to travel faster.

Not that it really did any good, two days of traveling at a much faster speed and still there was no change in the strength of the shard. We seemed no closer to it than the day we first started our journey. And the realization was killing me. Each step, though it didn't seem to bring me any closer to the outside and my friends, it did bring me closer to insanity. Closer to hopelessness, to giving up.

I wasn't sure how much more I could take before I lost my hold on reality. I wasn't even sure I wanted to remain sane any longer. What was the point? Sanity brought me nothing but pain and tears. Perhaps it would have been better if I jumped off of the ledge and let go of the last cord holding in reason and reality.

But then again, I'm not entirely sure I am still sane. For if I was, I wouldn't be hallucinating would I? Sane people don't hallucinate right? And I had to have been hallucinating because things like that didn't happen in the real world right? If it's so unreal, it would have to be a fantasy, thus making it a hallucination right?

I suppose I should probably explain what I am talking about. I mean it really doesn't make any sense to be calling something a hallucination without saying what it was that I was hallucinating about right? You can't just say you were seeing things and leave it at that, there has to be more detail, more information. So let me start from the beginning.

Sesshoumaru and I had just stopped traveling for the night and I had taken out another snack bar to eat. I know I should be eating more than just fruit-filled snack bars, but I didn't have to prepare them or try to find firewood so I could cook them. And I didn't feel like eating dry ramen at that moment, so the snack bar was my best choice.

So there I was, just sitting by myself quietly, munching away on my dinner when I feel something wet drag across the corner of my mouth. I couldn't decide if I wanted to scream or try and figure out what had done it. There was really only one option, all things considered, but that was not possible so there had to be something else here with us. "Sesshoumaru?" I whispered when I was finally able to find my voice.

"Yes?" he replied and I almost did scream. I was expecting him to be many feet away from me, not inches from my face. Him being so close to me could only mean one of two things: either he had licked me, which is what I had decided must have happened to me, or he was about to attack whatever it was that had done it. The only problem was he didn't sound like he was about ready to attack something; his voice goes even colder right before he attacks.

"Was that you?" I inquired after a few moments of silence other that our combined breathing. Even as I was saying it I felt like an idiot. There was no way Sesshoumaru, of all people, or of all demons really, just licked me. No, he had to be so close to me because he was going after whatever it was that had done it. That just had to be it.

"Yes, it had been bugging me for some time," Sesshoumaru replied and he must have been able to see my confused expression or something because he continued, "You had a speck of fruit on you. It annoyed me."

"So you licked my face?" I questioned thinking maybe I had been wrong and it hadn't been a lick. It was so quick I could be remembering what it felt like wrong. That's what it was! It must have been a piece of his silk clothing, though why he would use that I have no idea, but the coldness of it could have just felt wet.

"Yes," Sesshoumaru replied again, utterly destroying the conclusion I had just made. Couldn't he have just lied? And why would he choose to lick it off my face, whether it was annoying him or not? Shouldn't he have just demanded I remove it myself? "Does my nearness make you uncomfortable?" he questioned, apparently noticing my fidgeting.

"Yes, but probably not for any reason you think. It's not because it's you that's near me, but the fact that it just doesn't seem like something you would do, unless it was to kill me. And you don't seem to be making any move toward that end. I think that I am more confused than uncomfortable," I told him after thinking about his question for a moment.

"I should be killing you, shouldn't I?" Sesshoumaru questioned, but something in his tone told me he was talking more to himself than to me. It would seem I was not the only one being thrown off by the void. Perhaps it was messing with his mind as much as it was messing with mine. "Strange, I have no desire to kill you at the moment. There is, of course, always later. We shall see."

Had I been anywhere else, with anyone else, I would have believed that to be a joke and started laughing. At that moment though, I doubted that would have been a good idea or one I would live to regret. "I think it's the void," I told him instead, deciding it would be best to get off of the subject of whether to kill me or not. "It's screwing with things in my mind and my perception. Perhaps it is messing with yours as well."

"Hn. That would explain a few things," he replied, and again I was sure he was talking to himself rather than to me. The void must have been messing with him as well, for one he never talks this much, especially not to me. And he was still sitting mere inches from my face and giving off no indication that he intended on moving anytime soon.

I opened my mouth to say something, though I am unsure what it would have been, but was prevented from doing so by something warm and soft pressing up against my lips. It took me a moment to register what it was. His lips. Sesshoumaru was kissing me. Not a moment later he had pulled back and I licked my lips before I could even realize what I was doing. "What are you doing?"

"We shall discover that soon enough." he told me before I felt his lips brushing my own once again as he began pushing me back until I was laying down beneath him. At that moment I realized two things: I was kissing him back and I had to have been hallucinating. But hallucination or not, my body seemed to want the same things his did. Cursing the void, Sesshoumaru and myself, I reached down and pulled my shirt up over my head.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 6

Regret. It's truly a funny word, isn't it? One of the most pointless of emotions you could ever feel, really. Regret can not change the past, re-warp events into what you would have wanted them to be in the first place. _To feel sorrow or remorse for_...do you feel sorrow for what it was that happened or is it that you feel remorse for not being able to change it?

Perhaps it is both, but either way it is pointless. Regret gives you nothing but sadness and pain. It merely reminds you of your failings, what you could have, would have done had you been given the chance to do it again. But who's to say you wouldn't regret the second outcome as well? What rule states that the second time around things have to work out to your liking?

Perhaps instead it would merely end up being worse and you would find yourself regretting that you ever changed it in the first place. Vicious circle regret is. A pointless, painful, never ending vicious circle. Regret is one thing about us humans that I will never truly understand. If it's so pointless, why is it there in the first place?

Realizations is another funny word, in my opinion. Ever noticed how you always realized something after the fact? When that realization can no longer do you any good, spare you from some pain or injustice. _ The act of realizing or the state of being realized_... _The result of realizing_...the after affect. The result. Always after, never before. What then is the point of realizing something when it is already far too late for it to do us any good?

And much like with regret, the simple fact that your realized whatever it was that would have been nice to known before hand, it can not change the past. Sure it may effect what you decide to do at a later date, some other situation that you find yourself thrown into, but for that which has already happened, it is useless.

So many words, emotions and actions are pointless in the world. Did he ever realized that? Or perhaps that is a realization for another day. I have though. While the void confused so many things in my head, at least a few it made clear. There was no point in me regretting being stuck there, so why bother? Why waste my time. I realized what the void was doing to us, but by then it was far too late to stop it, so what was the point in knowing the answer?

My favorite funny, pointless word is revenge. An eye for an eye and what not. _To take vengeance for; inflict punishment for; avenge_... _An opportunity to retaliate or gain satisfaction. _ Of all the idiotic things I have heard in my life, this would be at the top of the list. Revenge doesn't bring back the one that was lost, simply makes another join in that pain as they lose what you take in order to avenge. And the real kicker, the thing I love about revenge the most, even after you avenge, gain satisfaction in the death of the one that caused you pain, you still feel that lost of life that made you want revenge in the first place.

Kami above, explain this one to me please. What is the point?! When nothing you will do will change that which has already happened and simply place another being on the same path as you had just taken. I used to understand, I really did. I understood why my friends were fighting so hard to avenge their loved ones against the monstrosities committed by Naraku. But now it is only the want and need to prevent him from doing more damage to more innocent people that I can understand. That is a concept I can grasp onto, believe it.

But revenge? Killing Naraku wouldn't bring back the lives of Miroku's father and grandfather, it wouldn't give him back the many years he lived in fear of his wind tunnel going out of control and sucking in his life. It wouldn't bring back Sango's family and village or spare her brother the memory of what he was forced to do. It wouldn't breath new life into the clay body Kikyou was currently walking around in or give her back the 50 years she lost.

Nor would it give Inuyasha back the 50 years he lost when being pinned to a tree or would it erase the pain he felt when he had thought that his first love had betrayed him. It wouldn't bring the countless ookami back from the dead. Shippo had gotten his revenge when the Thunder Brothers were killed by Inuyasha and what did that give him? Absolutely nothing. His father was still dead and would remain so. Revenge is another vicious circle, each time it is taken, another steps up to start the whole process over again.

Flashback

Dusk had descended upon the group hours before and currently the remaining members of the group were crowded around the fire, sleeping peacefully. All accept for Inuyasha who was currently five minutes away from the group keeping watch over the still wind tunnel controlled arm. The silence that had settled over the camp was broken when Miroku rolled over and groaned in pain. Checking to make sure he hadn't woken any of the others up, he rolled back onto his back with a sigh.

It had been about a week or so since his wind tunnel had gone out of control taking both Kagome and Sesshoumaru with it. With the two groups thrown together, the air had been tense and tempers quick to flare. The pain of losing their friend, and for some their lord, caused many a fight among them. And it seemed no one was safe from anyone's anger or words. Even poor Rin and Shippo had been on the receiving end of a few verbal outbursts.

The latest had ended just after supper was finished and had left the poor girl in tears. That, Jaken had decided, had been the final straw. It was bad enough already that the mere mention of Sesshoumaru's name would send her into tears, but now the constant fighting was making her cry as well. Knowing there wasn't much else he could do for her, Sesshoumaru-sama he was not, Jaken decided that he would at least get revenge for both her and himself.

There was no doubt in his mind who was responsible for the loss of their lord, the wind tunnel belonged to only one man and he would see Sesshoumaru-sama's death avenged. Raising himself silently from the ground, Jaken began making his way over to where the monk was still trying to fall back asleep. He thought about waiting until he was to lessen the chances of him being able to make noise, but decided he wanted the monk to know just who killed him and why.

Kneeling down on the ground next to him, Jaken began reaching his hand over until it was mere inches above the man's lips and nose. As it began to descend, violet eyes opened and held his gaze with their own. He could see the moment the apprehension dawned in the monk's eyes, but the satisfaction he was hoping to gain from this moment was shallow. "All of this." Jaken began as he hardened the glare he directed at him, "is your fault. Their lives, their deaths are on your head."

Miroku seemed to give thought to what Jaken was saying as he cast his glance away toward the night stars. After a few moments of silence, he turned back, sighing almost inaudibly. "You are not wrong in your blame. I do not, will not deny that the fault lies with me. Nor will I in any way prevent you from taking the revenge you are entitled. I simply have but one request.

"When you end my life and you take revenge for the death of Sesshoumaru, take revenge not only for him but for Kagome as well. She deserves to be avenged as well and I know none of the others would do so." Miroku requested staying true to his word to not prevent him even as Jaken nodded his head and his hand began to descend toward him.

'For them both then.' Jaken thought to himself as his hand covered the mouth and nose of the monk, cutting off his air supply. Keeping his eyes locked with the violet ones of Miroku, Jaken waited for him to change his mind about letting himself be killed and try to stop him, but the look never came and he never struggled.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

AN: Also I have a poll up on my profile for which story I kept Sesshoumaru most in character so if you have a moment and want to vote, visit my profile. The poll is a bit old, kept forgetting to mention it, so it doesn't have some of my newer stories. I may put another one up at a later date.

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 7

I have often wondered many things over the course of my life. For most I am still waiting for the answer, others I wonder still if the answer I received was truly the right one. Very few that have been explained to me, do I fully grasp or believe. It wasn't always like this. In fact, before being sucked up into that void, I fully believed everything as it had been explained to me. But like with traveling into the past and learning what you had thought was fantasy was, in fact, very much real, the void made me realize that not everything was as it seemed.

Those nights with him...the way things have ended, I often wonder if I would have made the same decisions I made then if I had known what would be the end result. Were they even my decisions to be made or had they been made by someone, something else? When in doubt, I have always been told to chalk it up to fate, destiny. We humans do this a lot it seems. When we can't explain, find reason for, or when no matter what we did to try and change the course of history, didn't worked, we blame it on Fate.

It was supposed to happen so it is not our fault that it did or we were unable to change it. Blame it on that which cannot defend itself or ever be disproved. Why take responsibility when you do not have to? But if things are fated to be a certain way, why bother trying? Why try to live your life the way you want to if no matter what you do, what will be will be? Why bother leaving your home at all because if it is fate, then whatever is supposed to happen will find a way to do so.

I no longer believe in fate, in destiny. Things happen because the steps you take, and those around you take, add up to equal the end result. It is the individual lives combined with everyone else's that shape the path of history. People die because another person wanted the land they were on and sent his army to take it. People starve because the crop that year was bad and there wasn't enough food. Had they hunted more or planted more, they would have had more to eat.

We think our every day actions do not affect others, but they do, more than we could ever realize. Because some hunter killed a bear for his fur, another hunter that would have come upon it next was unable to kill it to bring food back for his family. They went hungry, or at the very least, had less to eat. Does that mean the first hunter was in the wrong? As long as he didn't waste the meat, then no. He had no way of knowing the bear could have been the dinner for someone else had he left it alone.

But it is not fate that the first hunter found the bear first. He simply started out earlier, was closer or he was a better tracker. It has nothing to do with fate. Luck, sure, but not fate or destiny. At least, I no longer believe it was. I want to, I wish I could believe that there was a such thing as fate and destiny. Things would make so much more sense, be simpler, if that was the case. It wouldn't be my fault. I couldn't have changed things, no matter how much I may have wanted to.

It's funny how everyone wants to believe it was fate when I have to believe that it wasn't. Fate always seems to have a reason things happen the way they do, but I am still waiting for the reason. Perhaps the truth is even worse. Perhaps it was neither fate nor not fate. Maybe it was simply the fact that inside the void, you were cut off from your destiny and a new story was written as you went.

And then, once we were finally out of the void, our destinies picked up right where they had left off. And everything that happened in the void was written out of our destinies because it was never supposed to happen in the first place. If so, who do I blame things on? The void that messed with our minds, getting us to do things we never would have done had we not been there? Him, who never understood that, what was happening to me, was affecting him as well? Or perhaps it is myself where the blame lies. I, who didn't try hard enough to change things.

Flashback

And then, as if a key was turned in the lock and the door opened before us, the presence of the shard became stronger. I didn't even notice it at first, not until a few days later when I searched for the shard to make sure we were still going in the right direction did I realize that it was indeed closer. Almost as if the void was waiting for what had happened that night to transpire before allowing us to become closer to the exit.

It was really the only option truthfully. Nothing else new had occurred in between the times that I had searched out the presence of the shard. Only the night we spent together in the throes of passion differed from our normal daily activities. So one could only assumed that this was what had triggered us being allowed to move forward through the void.

At first I had been afraid to tell him the shard was stronger, worried he would come to the same conclusion I had. Why, truthfully, I am unsure. It is not as though he would come to regret that night even more because of this newfound knowledge. Though perhaps it is because he may have become angered to know that his actions were forced by an outside hand.

In the little I knew about Sesshoumaru, I knew that he did not like others to dictate his actions whether vocally or hidden within the shadows. Truthfully I did not care for this realization much myself. It could only lead to the why. Why the void wanted us to sleep together in order to make it out of here. What was the reasoning behind it?

Finally deciding, after a half a day of floating on our clouds, that no matter how he reacted, he had a right to know that the exit was getting closer by the minute. Steeling myself, I took in a long, deep breath and turned my head to glance over at where I was sure he was currently. "The presence of the shard is getting stronger."

He was silent for a long while, probably digesting what I had just told him, before he finally answered me. Of all the scenarios I had played out in my head of how he would react or what he would say, this one never even crossed my mind for a moment. "Once we are out of here, things will return to what they once were."

Though I can understand why he told me this, it wasn't as if I had some fantasy built within my mind of fairytale happy endings that would emerge from our time spent here. I myself had already come to this very conclusion. I had no delusions of romance or relationships outside of the void, I have not had the time to even figure out if I would want one in the first place.

But I did know that neither of us would wish to build a relationship using a time when our actions and decisions were not ours to make as the foundation. It would not only be pointless, as it would never last, it would also be incredibly stupid. Not that I had any delusions in the first place of Sesshoumaru wanting a relationship with me, let alone in the romantic sense.

"Agreed," I finally answered after a few moments of getting lost within my own thoughts. I didn't realize exactly what his statement had meant until much later that day. Well, I did, but at the same time, I still did not. It had been the 'when' part that I didn't quite seem to understand, but Sesshoumaru explained it to me that night in great lengths.

Though he did so without words. That night when we made camp, he didn't bother to put up pretenses, nor did he seem to question his actions. He merely situated himself over me moments after I had laid down to go to sleep that night. Before I had the chance to question his actions, his lips were already on mine and I felt my own begin to move on their own accord.

It was at that moment that I remembered what he had said and realized what I had missed in his words. He had said when we left, he had said nothing about the remaining time we were here. And for some reason, at that moment, I couldn't find it in me to care. It didn't matter that the void was the reason behind what we were doing or that our actions hadn't truly been ours since we had woken up here.

It was irrelevant that he did not love me, nor I him, or that whatever physical relationship we started here would end the moment we were back in the real world. None of it mattered to me as I felt his fingertips running up my side and his desire pressing into my thigh. To me, at that moment, the only thing that mattered was the way he made me feel, that he could make me feel when the void seemed to have sucked up everything else. So closing my eyes, and entwining my fingers in his long, silky hair, I threw caution to the wind and got lost in his arms.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 8

The mysteries of life. Another thing we blame the unexplainable on. 'It's just one of those mysteries of life.' There is no real reason for it to happen or at the very least, not one that you will ever truly understand. The unexplainable questions our every day lives send our way. Never once attached to their answer. These are answers were are never supposed to know.

Why waste your time and energy trying to find the answers when everyone else tells you, you never will. See, we humans are lazy creatures at the very core. We take the easy road, the road of least resistance. We'd prefer to never know the true answer rather than putting forth the energy to find it out for ourselves. Instead, we merely chalk it up to the unexplainable, a mystery of life.

The only problem with this way of thinking, is that the unanswered questions merely lead to more questions. Why did certain things happen the way they did? In the order they did? Who was behind them? Had you done things differently, would the outcome still be the same? Would it differ? If it did change, what would it change to? And the list goes on.

Without bothering to find the answers, we will never truly know why things happened the way they did and would merely be stuck in an endless cycle of questions. But even still, sometimes it is not the why that matters most but the what. What it was that happened. Sometimes the what can confuse you even more than the why.

When you are so sure of what is to happen, and yet what does is something entirely different or perhaps opposite of what you thought, it can really throw you for a loop. Bringing to mind even more unanswerable questions. And sometimes, just because things aren't stacked against us enough, the answers truly are unattainable.

Flashback

"It's not fair!" Sango screamed as she stomped her foot, emphasizing her anger. "It's just not! Why is it every time we turn around we are mourning someone else!? It's that slimy bastard's fault! Why must I always be in mourning for my loved ones?" Sango demanded softly, the last part more to herself or perhaps the Kami, than to us as she lost the steam holding her upright and collapsed to the ground.

We all looked on, unsure of what to say to the grieving woman as we too were mourning the loss of our friend. Though it was doubtful there were any words that would do her or us any good at that moment. Too many times over the last few years we each sat mourning, whether with each other or apart, mourning our families, our friends, those that mattered to us most. Each being taken from our lives long before they should have been, before we were able to stand on our own without them.

And so we sat and watched as she broke down in front of us, her pain and tears tearing through to our very souls. Watched as the tears shook her already fragile body causing our hearts to break all over again. There was not that we could do for her, nothing we could do for ourselves. What do you say to a heart broken girl when you yourself know there is nothing anyone could say that would ease the pain in your own heart.

Words were meaningless and hollow, they would only lighten the burden of our own hearts slightly by believing we had done something for her, to ease her pain, when in fact it would do no good. And so instead, I did the only other thing I could think of at that moment. Rising to my feet, I walked over to sit down beside the weeping woman and put my arms around her.

"It's not fair." she insisted as she glanced up to look me directly in the eyes with her own red, puffy ones. "I don't think my heart can handle this. I can not take the loss of another person I love. I am far too weak, too fragile. I just want to crawl into a hole and just hide away. Hide from the pain, from the inevitability that someone else I love will be next." she told me, an occasional sob causing her to stutter.

"You are the strongest woman I know. It will be hard, I will not lie to you, but you will make it through this. We all will." I assured her before turning to glance at the other members of our extended group, determination written on my face. "We have to. Kagome would not want us to fall apart. She would tell us that we needed to remain strong for the children, for those who can not protect themselves from the evils of this world. Too many depend on us and will do so in the future, for any of us to crawl into a hole and hide away from the pain."

"I can't do that. I'm not as strong as you. I'm not you Miroku." Sango insisted as she cast her gaze away from me to stare off into the horizon where the sun was beginning to set. Taking a death breath I couldn't help but thank the Kami that things hadn't gone how I truly believed they were going to. Had they, she would be mourning my death on top of Kagome's and that truly would break her, I believe.

Glancing over to where the kids were sitting quietly, a few tears falling from each of their normally cheerful eyes, I saw Jaken trying to sooth the small girl and couldn't help but think back to the other night. Without thinking about what might have happened to the others with my death, I had been fully ready to take responsibility for what was at least partly my fault. I didn't have to join up with the group, or remain with them all this time. Constantly put them all in danger with my wind tunnel.

I do not know his reasonings for not going through with it. I did as I promised I would and didn't fight back. Whatever it was that stayed his hand was within his own mind and I will probably never know or truly understand the reason. Just as I will never be able to decipher the look that shown in his eyes but a moment before he released me and walked away.

"You are strong enough Sango, just as we all are. We have each other to lean on when we need it. I don't know how or when, but I do know that we will get through this. And we will be stronger for it. As Kagome always told us, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. This will strengthen us and our resolve to see that bastard dead. To see him pay for all of the harm he has caused us and others like us.

"If we fall apart, if we break down until there is nothing left but a shell of what we used to be, he wins. I for one have no intention of letting that bastard even think he's won. I will fight on and I will fight harder, stronger than I ever have before. For Kagome, for Sesshoumaru. For Kikyou and Kohaku and Miroku's father and your village and even those smelly wolves. For everyone he has ever wronged or would wrong in the future if left to his own devices.

"I will see that bastard dead and any who would side with him. He is evil itself and I have no intention of allowing him to darken our home any longer. And you, all of you will fight with me because you, as I, could not live a normal life knowing what we know. Knowing a bastard like him is still out harming innocents. Knowing he would continue to taunt, to attack, to torture us for as long as we live and breath.

"He will never give up. Never hide away in a hole and give up his plans and neither will we. We give up, then all of this, all of the people who have lost their lives, the lives of those they loved, everything would have been in vain. I won't, I refuse to lose Kagome and not make sure the bastard responsible pays for it. If you think it's bad now Sango, give up and watch just how bad it can truly be. Watch what happens when people stand by and allow a monster to roam free. Watch how many people die when no one does anything about it.

"This, as painful, as hard as it is at this very moment, is nothing compared to what it will be like. I have seen what it's like when people sit around and do nothing while an innocent woman dies. Too afraid to stand up to a demon, too worried about their own pathetic lives to try to save one of their own. My mother died because her villagers were too scared to face the demon she was protecting me from. Because I was too scared to face him.

"I cowered there while she gave her life protecting me, when all it would have taken was one person helping her. Do you know who it was that ended up killing that demon? Who it was that ended up saving my life? It was Sesshoumaru. He showed up that day to kill me, I was a disgraced to our father's blood line. I was weak and pathetic. He said I was too much of a coward to waste his time killing me. That the death of my mother weighing on my shoulders was worse than any punishment he could bestow upon me.

"Instead of listening to his words, I blamed him for my mother's death for years. I hated him because he didn't show up a moment sooner and save her. And you know what? That fucker was right! It wasn't his fault he didn't get there in time to save her or that he wouldn't have even if he did. It was my fault, and the fault of the villagers for not standing up to that demon and allowing her to die. It was good people standing by, too afraid to stand up for others, doing nothing that killed my mother.

"I refuse to have another innocent's life ending on my hands because I did nothing to stop it. And if any of you would be fine sitting by while people are dying when you could have stopped it, then Kagome's faith in you was sadly misplaced. Then you are not the amazing people she had praised all this time." Inuyasha told us before turning to glance at everyone in the group in turn.

"The power is weakened. The wind tunnel will extinguish soon and Miroku is ready to move. When that wind tunnel goes out I will be leaving. Her family deserves to know the truth, to know that Kagome died protecting the life of a little girl she barely knew. They have the right to know that she died a hero. The way I see it, all of you have two choices. Come with me, fight against the monster responsible for their death, and the deaths of many others. Fight to stop him from harming anymore innocents.

"Or give up. Hide away in some rotten hole. Sink your head beneath the dirt all because you are too scared, too weak to do what is right. But know now, know from this moment on, that if you chose this option, you'd best pray I never see you again. Pray to the Kami I never come upon your scent. If you are so weak to run and hide while there are people who need your help, who depend on you, you will be my enemy. If this is the option you choose, the next time I see you, I will kill you." Inuyasha promised before turning and making his way out of the camp, disappearing into the trees just as the final rays of the sun disappeared on the horizon.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 9

You know how people always tell you that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, letting you know that whatever it is you are going through will soon end? Bringing you joy or perhaps relief that it was almost over. Something to look forward to. Something to push you that last little bit, to tell you to just hold on a little longer and then everything will be over.

What they don't tell you is what to do when that light appears and you aren't ready for it. As strange as that may sound, and it did to me even back then, I was not ready. I wasn't ready to leave the void when all I had wanted to do since day one was go home. But now that the end was near, I found myself wishing and praying that something would happen to prolong our time here.

As ludicrous as it sounded to even me, I wasn't ready to give up the time we had spent there. Me and Sesshoumaru, Sesshoumaru and I. Me a wannabe miko and him a demon. A demon who had been my enemy from the very second I had laid eyes upon him, and for all intents and purposes still was. A demon who would sooner slit my throat than spend even a moment with me of his own choice. Not that I could really blame him, his hated half-brother was my best friend.

It made no sense to want that time to last longer. I did not love him, I have been in love before and would recognize the signs had that been the case. Perhaps it would be safe to assume I lusted for him, but I cannot imagine that being enough of a reason for my mind to contemplate staying there longer. Our time would soon end, I knew and understood this, and had even been ready to go my separate way until that moment I realized the end was just around the corner.

I knew things wouldn't be the same once we were out, I knew that from that very first night, and it was what I had wanted as well. But something changed that last night we were there and everything I had agreed upon and wanted, was wrong. It was no longer what I wished for and of course I couldn't tell him that. You could almost hear the relief in his voice when I told him we would reach the end tomorrow.

Whether he would have killed me or simply laughed in my general direction had I told him that I wasn't ready for 'us' to end, I will never know, but I did know without a doubt that he did not wish for the same. And I felt that as long as I didn't hear him say it, I could at least be semi-happy and was far better off to never hear him say he didn't want me, than to hear the words directly from his lips.

I am quite sure I wouldn't have been able to take him saying that I disgusted him or perhaps that I was beneath him. I already knew he felt this way before the void and the only true option was that it was even more so now. I am not a fool and I refused to act like one. Sesshoumaru and I could never be, that simple fact was as plain to me then as it was before the void.

And so I did the only thing I could, what any woman in my position would have done to protect herself from the damage that a few words could have caused. I lied. I lied to him and I lied to myself. I prayed that by telling myself enough times that I did not want anything but what pre-void offered, that I would believe it and that it would be true. Prayed that he couldn't sense the lie and realize I was a coward. That even if I didn't love him, I couldn't handle his rejection for even just a physical relationship once we were home.

I lied to the both us of hoping to make things easier. To prevent myself from going through that pain, the pain of rejection, of knowing someone doesn't think you are good enough. Of being what they want. I have already dealt with that kind of pain and I did so, and would do it again, with Inuyasha because I loved him and because he's my best friend. I refuse to go through that kind of pain for lust, especially when the demon I lust for is an enemy. And when I do not know even within the confines of my own mind, if I truly did lust for him or it was simply the void talking.

Knowing what I do now, what I didn't have even the slightest of clues for then, I wonder if by trying to make things easier on me, if I didn't in fact just make them harder. I have wondered if by lying to him that night, I ruined my only true chance of happiness. I have loved my life, good with the bad, but I have felt this void within me since that night. And I wonder still if lying to him, to myself, was the cause.

Flashback

Tomorrow we would finally be out of this hell hole. There would be light and friends and chances to go back to see my family. I would be surrounded by loved ones again rather than my only company being that of an enemy. Things would finally be able to go back to the way they were, the way they should be. No more void screwing with my mind.

No more darkness preventing me from distinguishing up from down, truth from fiction, right from wrong. No more having my body and emotions being manipulated by an outside force. There would only be my life, my happy little life that I have missed more than words could describe while in this void. And I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait to see the sunshine, to hold Shippo in my arms and hear all about his misadventures with Inuyasha.

To sit Inuyasha when he tried to hit Shippo or scream his name when I was in trouble. I couldn't wait for girl talks with Sango and slapping Miroku when he got out of line. For having my life back, the way everything was before. I craved it so much I thought my chest might explode if I was here for one moment longer. That I might die if I didn't see my friends soon.

I wanted, needed, longed to go home. Then he changed all of that. In a blink of an eye what I wanted was no longer what I yearned for. What I desired was no longer my friends or family or life back, it was simply one more night with him. But I knew, the very moment his lips descended upon mine and he brought me to the brink of madness, that one more night, one more time would simply make me desire another. Knowing this, knowing what it would do to me, I could not stop it. I didn't want to.

hr

His lips upon mine, soft and moist, moved to the rhythm of our heartbeats, my own pulse resonating through my lips. I could feel the pads of his long fingers slowly, ever so slowly, making their way down my side, leaving a trail of goosebumped flesh in their wake. The slow pace a torture as he took his time to reach the hem of my shirt and began to slide his warm fingers across my bare flesh. The sensation exciting a soft moan from my lips.

I couldn't see him in the darkness, but with his touch, his caresses I could envision in my mind what it would look like, and felt my body begin to heat up at just the thought of it. My fingers entangled themselves in his long, silky hair, feeling as though they were wrapped up in the purest of silks. His own fingers were slowly making their way north, to gently brush across my nipple causing it to harden. His other hand began to caress up my outer thigh, lifting my skirt as it went.

My hands moved of their own accord as they brush across his pale cheeks before sliding down to his waist, untying the knot in his obi. Hearing the silk rustle as it fell to the ground, I reached my hands inside his haori and pushed apart the cloth, letting it fall off of his broad shoulders. His warm lips upon my neck stilled me but for a moment before I tilted my head back, as though I was staring up at the sky, and pressed him closer to me.

His kisses began to trail lower as he moved my collar aside to reach the flesh just above my breasts and lay kiss after kiss upon my bare skin. Soon his hands were moving once again toward the hem of my shirt and he began to pull the clothing up my body and over my head. Where it went after, I am unsure as I never heard it hit the ground. The thought became unimportant as he began placing kisses upon my bare skin once again, starting from near my neck and slowly making his way toward my stomach.

Unable to keep my fingers still as he continued the torturously slow pace toward my waist line, I began running my hands over his shoulders. Feeling the hardened muscle beneath my fingers caused my blood to boil and pulse within my veins. I licked my suddenly dry lips, knowing he could hear it as I felt him slightly smirk against my skin and began bringing his hands closer to my core.

Knowing what was coming next, I braced myself, letting off a long moan the moment his tongue dragged its way across my petals as his hands spread my legs apart. His hot breath ghosting over them, caused my heartbeat to begin pulsing in my nether petals and my back arched up off of the ground. He continued his ministrations, pretending to not take notice of what it was doing to me, but as the smirk had not left his face, merely grown larger, I had no doubt that he knew very well what he was doing to my body.

And I allowed myself to enjoy his treatment as my fingers laced themselves within his long, silky hair and another moan poured from my lips. He growled low, sending vibrations though my body and I was barely able to stop myself from screaming out his name. Knowing that this would be our last night together, I decided I wanted to try something that I had wanted to since the first night, but was never able to as he wanted to be in control and on top.

Lifting his head, and looking to where I was sure his golden eyes were staring at me in question, I merely smiled, not caring if he could see it or not. More likely than not out of pure curiosity, he allowed me to flip him over onto his back and I climbed on top of him so I was straddling him. Titling my head so my lips were as close to his ear as they could be without touching, I whispered, "It's time for me to be in charge and help you feel exactly what you do to me."

He growled at me slightly, a clear sign that he was not happy with the current position, but made no move to stop me as I began my own trail of kisses down his tone stomach. After every few kisses or so, I breathed my hot breath onto his skin, smirking in satisfaction as he developed goosebumps. Shoving the anxiety of what I was about to do to the back of my mind, I continued following down his happy trail before glancing up at him and licking my lips.

Though I knew the chances he could see what I was doing was very slim, I knew he could hear me and it was good enough. Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly over his heated skin, I reached my hand down, running it across his flesh until I found what I had been searching for. Wrapping my hand around his heated flesh, I began working up a slow rhythm as I lowered my head and gently ran my tongue across the tip. Beneath me I could feel Sesshoumaru squirm slightly giving me the confidence to make a bold move.

Keeping my hand moving constantly, I lowered my head and allowed my mouth to take in some of him and began rolling my tongue around it. I could both hear and feel the growl that echoed through him and glanced up to find myself staring into blood-red, bright eyes and began to stop so I could move away, unsure of what I had done wrong. "Continue," he growled out, apparently noticing I was about to stop, and I stopped my retreat and went back to my previous rhythm.

Allowing more of him into my mouth, I kept my eyes locked with his and began moving my hand faster. I watched as his eyes slid close, dispersing our only light, and tried to create more suction with my lips. Before I was able to do much else, I was flipped over onto my back and Sesshoumaru was once again leaning over me, only this time he had joined with me and was moving to his own rhythm. Unsure of what else to do, I wrapped my hands around his neck, threw my head back and began moving my hips up to meet his.

The sounds of my moans and his grunts filled my ears as he began to pick up speed, going almost too fast for me to keep up with. As it was I couldn't keep up with the rhythm and just went at my own pace as I began dragging my blunt nails across his back and moaned out his name. It seemed to spur him on even more as he once again picked up the pace and I finally gave up trying to keep up with him and laid my body still as I began to trail kisses across his shoulders.

Feeling my body about to explode, I dug my nails into his back and prepared for the rush of sensations that I knew would soon invade my body. Knowing I was close, he sped up a little more as his mouth latched onto my nipple, sending me over the edge and causing me to scream out his name. A few more thrusts and he had released my breast, throwing his head back and growling deeply, a sign I knew to mean he too had reached his completion.

Him pulling out of me caused me to glance up at him and I could see the red receding from his eyes, dispersing the little light we had. He took a deep breath, most likely still coming down from his high, before speaking to me. "It ends now. Tomorrow we will be out of here and things will go back to the way they should be."

"Good, I can't wait," I told him with a long sigh, ready to be back with my friends and family. "You don't have to worry Sesshoumaru, I have no intention of getting attached to you," I assured him with a slight laugh as I rolled over on my side, too tired and lazy at that moment to bother getting dressed. As I yawned, I closed my eyes and waited for him to move the distance he normally went afterwards to sleep, but he never did. Instead he laid down behind me, spooning my body with his, and wrapped his arm around my waist.

My eyes shot open at the feeling his body was causing to me and I knew right then that what I had just told him was nothing but a lie. I am unsure of how I had missed it, or when it had even happened, but I knew in that moment that I was very much attached to him. It had to be the void talking, I prayed to any Kami that might be listening that it was. One last chance for the void to screw with my mind and not me truly wishing to remain here, or even out there, with him. It had to be the void, I hadn't wanted it five minutes ago, but even as I thought this, I didn't truly believe it. And I felt my heart break a little as I closed my eyes to sleep.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

* * *

Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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AN: I know I'm really late on this update and I apologize for that. I hadn't felt like writing in a while and was really busy with real life, but it seems that I've gotten over this hump so the next update should be much sooner. Also there will be an AN at the end of the chapter, it contains spoilers for this chapter so only read it after. Also I have received many reviews and questions about the relationship between Kagome and Sesshoumaru, and while of course I can't give you any details, let me remind everyone that this is an angst fan fic. While I understand that it really hasn't seemed that way in the story so far, trust me, it will and pretty soon.

Chapter 10

Sometimes I am so slow to grasp something that I amaze even myself. Things that should have been obvious were obscured to me. The missing piece of the puzzle, the puzzle being the time I spent in the void and all it meant, so obvious once I had it figured out, but I just couldn't grasp that it even was a puzzle piece before. I could not see the importance of it, could not see it's worth.

But then again, considering everything else that was going on at the time, I guess it is understandable that I did not connect the piece to anything important. I did not see where it fit into the puzzle. The shard, it was the missing puzzle piece. It was light blue with wisps of white clouds and yet I still could not see that it was part of the sky, figuratively speaking anyways.

It never even crossed my mind to wonder about the shard I had sensed while in the void, it didn't dawn on me until later that I shouldn't be sensing a solitary shard, at least not one that's completely pure. A single, untainted shard did not exist outside of the one already in my possession. Even the one in Kohaku was tainted and Kouga had two.

But the whole reason we knew which way to head to reach the exit was because I had sensed the shard. Still it wasn't until after, that I realized that there was an extra shard and why there was one. I should have known from the moment I first sensed the shard that there was something strange about it, but I guess understanding it was my ticket home was enough to distract my subconscious and nothing picked at the back of my mind to get me wondering about it.

I, probably more than anyone else, know how funny time traveling can be. Might even be one of the most mysterious of things in existence, but there is always one constant when it comes to traveling through time. It's that, just because you change something in the present or even the future, it doesn't mean that it is changed in the past as well. In fact, it isn't.

If you step on a bug today, no matter how far you go into the future, it will still be dead, but if you kill a bug today and go even one day into the past, it's not dead anymore. Because it hasn't been killed yet. The same can be said about the shard. Just because we found it originally in the future, or my normal present, that doesn't mean that it's journey in the past didn't happen. In fact, it had to have in order for us to find it in the future in the first place.

Flashback

"This is it," I commented with a sigh once we got to the point where it seemed I could almost reach out and touch the shard. "Well I'd say it's been fun, but we'd both know it's a lie. Home, here I come," I whispered out loud to myself before feeling Sesshoumaru's arm reach around my waist. We had decided that speed would be our best course of action in case the void tried to suck us back up as we left.

I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly, unable to watch in case this didn't work, in case it did. There was no sound, no warning before the wind began rushing past my body, he was running. Full speed in the direction of the shard, in the direction of home. I could feel the void's power trying to pull us back and I prayed for success. Though I'm not really sure if it was our success or the void's, perhaps both.

A sudden increase of power had my eyes flying open to witness what very few, if any, humans have ever seen before. Bright, warm, glowing power surging around our bodies like millions upon millions of tiny fireflies. Making my entire body tingle and I couldn't help but wonder if this was what it was like to be struck by lightning, without the pain anyways. The power continue to grow and circle around us faster and faster until we were completely surrounded by a large ball of power.

I had seen him do this before, but never this close. Seeing him turn into an orb of light from a distance is like a drop of water next to the ocean in comparison to being inside it. Your entire body glows, like the light of the moon reflecting off your skin. You're filled with a warm that can't really be put into words other than you feel protected. It's an amazing, once in a lifetime experience, and I'm eternally grateful that I was able to.

It only took a few seconds and we were rocketing straight through the power of the void, it's resistance nothing against Sesshoumaru's power, and soon enough I felt us pass through the threshold. Opening my eyes, which I had closed again so point during the flight, I was blinded by the bright sun light and quickly re-closed them. I felt my feet touch the ground and wanted to whimper at the loss of the power around me, but I was unable to dwell on it long as a loud scream quickly caught my attention.

Opening my eyes once again, I glanced up to find a crying Sango and smiling Miroku rushing towards us. I felt the arm around my waist release me a moment before she crashed into me and knocked us both to the ground. "Kagome, I knew you were still alive. They didn't want to listen to me no matter how many times I told them, but I knew it. I really did," Sango insisted as she cried against my shoulder and I wrapped my arms around her and soon my own tears join in.

"I will inform the others. Welcome back Lady Kagome," Miroku told me with a wide smile before turning and heading away. It only took me a moment to notice he was now one arm short, but Sango's ramblings quickly took my mind off of it for now.

"What happened to you? Are you okay? He didn't hurt you did he?" Sango questioned as she turned to glare at the silent Sesshoumaru before turning back to me to continue her inquiry without waiting for my response. "What's it like in there? How did you guys get out? What took you so long? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Inuyasha too, you should have seen him. Man is he scary when he's angry," Sango rambled as I half listened to her, mostly just happy to hear her voice once again.

"I will answer all of your questions later with everyone alright?" I questioned as I finally released my tight grip on her and smiled at her. Before she was able to answer, we were stampeded by the others arriving. Before I knew what happened, I was under a dog pile with a million and one questions being thrown at me at once. I didn't bother trying to answer, since they would hear me over the noise anyways, and just fell back on the grass laughing, taking Sango, Shippo, Kirara and Inuyasha with me.

Nearby I could barely make out Rin and Jaken's voices asking much of the same questions to Sesshoumaru as the others were asking me. "I'm home," I whispered as I wrapped my arms around them as much as I could and held them to me. Almost afraid if I let go they were disappear.

"Alright, alright let her up," Inuyasha instructed as he stood up and held his hand out to me as he waited for the others to get off of me. "We can worry about the questions later. For now I'm sure you're hungry so we'll head back to camp," Inuyasha decided as he helped me to feet and I began dusting myself off.

"One thing before we go, Sesshoumaru, would you mind shredding that tree for me?" I requested as I pointed toward the tree that housed the shard, able to tell it was too deep within the large tree to remove it without killing it anyways. Everyone stared at me in question as he walked over and made quick work of the tree, leaving little more behind then large splinters and a single pure shard.

"What the hell? All the shards are already counted for, what's with that one?" Inuyasha demanded as I walked over and picked it up, quickly adding it to the one around my neck.

"The Noh mask's shard. We got that shard while in the future, but in this time it was still in the tree. I'm not really sure what has happened to this one's twin, but now that we've gotten it in the past, we won't find it in the future. So if it didn't disappear when it arrived in the same time as it's past self, Naraku just might be one shard less now. But either way, it's just a guess," I told him with a shrug as I turned back to look at everyone.

Behind me I heard a sharp 'stay' and turned to see Sesshoumaru walking away from the group, his companions included. I watched him for a moment, sure that was what the others were doing as well, utterly confused as he walked over to a crater in the direction we had come from. It took me a minute to notice what it was he had seen, Miroku's missing cursed hand. After a moment, the pungent smell of poison filled the air as it dripped from his claws onto the curse hand. In seconds, it was nothing more than a pile of goo on the ground.

Much like I would have been if the sword had not protected me in his father's tomb, but that's another story all together. "I'm starving, let's go make dinner," I told the others with a smile as I lifted Shippo into my arms and began heading in the direction the others had come from a few minutes ago.

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AN: The Noh mask shard has always made me wonder. If you think about it they found the shard in the future, but when they came back to the past, it's still in the tree the Noh mask was made from, which means there's one extra shard. But yet, I have never see anyone else make mention of it in any fan fiction, one of the reasons I used it in mine hehe. In fact, I don't remember either the 'future shard' or the 'tree shard' ever being mentioned again in the manga or anime. It makes you wonder if it wasn't in fact a huge storyline typo and completely forgotten about by Takahashi-sama. Anyways something to think on, let me know what'cha think.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 11

I was finally home and basking in the warmth that my friends, and being near them, offered. My life before the void picked right back up where it had left off, at least at first. Sesshoumaru had left not long after destroying the cursed arm without a single word or glance in my direction. He held true to his word, things went back to the way they were before. Once again we were nothing more than a best friend's half brother and a half brother's companion to each other.

I was too busy being glad to be with my friends again to spend any time dwelling on it and for a while, it was working out. I couldn't miss what my mind gave me no time to think about. My friends gave me not a moment's peace and my thoughts were always filled with them. I was happy and I was content. I was home. Everything I had been wishing for while in the void was returned to me and all seemed right in my world.

The others accepted my shallow explanation about what happened while in the void, giving them only the basics. Trapped without any light, feeling the presence of the shard and making our way toward it. Never mentioning the key to being able to move closer to the shard or the nights that followed. I spoke of Sesshoumaru as little as humanly possible and the others just chalked it up to me being trapped there with the cold, emotionless bastard we all knew him to be.

I didn't see fit to correct them, they weren't wrong even if they weren't right. What had happened within the void did not matter anymore and would only cause problems if it came to light. I did not know if Inuyasha could forgive me for what I did with one of his greatest enemies and had no desire to find out. Knowing Sesshoumaru would never speak of what had happened, I did not worry about the truth coming to light one day.

I couldn't imagine it would be known so soon. In less than two months really. After a few days rest we had began traveling back toward Kaede's village, everyone needing a real break and me wanting to go visit my family. Inuyasha, of course, had insisted on going with me, not wanting to be separated from me again. I'm sure if the others could use the well, they would gone too. He had picked me up in his strong arms and jumped into the well the morning after we arrived at the village.

The bright, blue light surrounded us and I closed my eyes as I felt the magic flow over our bodies. Opening my eyes once the magic had died down, I glanced up to see the old, wooden roof of the well house, but instead I saw clear, blue sky. Confused I had glanced behind me to where Inuyasha should have been standing with me in his arms, but instead found nothing behind me and I was in fact on the dirt floor.

Unsure of what else to do, I merely sat there on the well floor for a few minutes and was once again surrounded by the blue magic. When it had died down I was staring into the confused golden eyes of Inuyasha and could only shrug to his unasked question. What was there to say? How could I answer? It was obvious the well still worked, Inuyasha had gone back and forth with no problem, it simply didn't work for me. I had glanced down to make sure the shards were still around my neck, not that it would have mattered, I merely need them to come back into this time not to go home, but sure enough they were still where I had left them.

We sat up that night discussing what could be the cause and the best we came up with was left over magic from the void was counteracting with the magic from the well. All that needed to be done, was simply wait for the magic to disappear completely and I should be able to go back through. And so we waited, checking day after day with the same result. I remained in this time, the well refused to work for me.

Just as I was beginning to think that perhaps we were wrong in our guess, it was confirmed. Of all the things for the void to cause and all the reasons for the well not to let me through, it just had to be this one. The one thing that would inform my friends that I was not completely honest about what had happened in the void, the one thing to bring our relationship to light. Almost two months to the day we first tried to go back through the well, I was awoken early in the morning with the overwhelming urge to lose my dinner from the night before.

Worried I was getting sick from the stress of not being able to go home, Inuyasha had insisted Kaede examine me. The truth of the matter gave me even more of a reason to be stressed, I was pregnant. It wasn't hard for me to figure out who the father was, there was only one option. Unfortunately, it wasn't hard for the others to figure it out as well. They had not left my side since I returned from the void and I wasn't far enough along for it to have happened before the void.

I'll never forget the look in Inuyasha's eyes when he realized the child growing in my womb was in fact his niece or nephew. He had walked out of the hut then and there without a word or glance back in my direction and I couldn't prevent the tears that had been threatening to fall. As Sango wrapped me in her arms and whispered reassurances into my ear, my thoughts turned to another dog demon and what his reaction to the news would be.

I decided, right then and there, whether or not I would tell him about the child. I knew that my decision might have been the wrong one, but truthfully, the other would have been just as wrong. Neither option was really much of one and so I just decided to go with what would cause me the least problems. Selfish perhaps, but then again, the other option would have been just as selfish.

Flashback

Inuyasha returned after three days surprising us while we were sitting down to eat dinner. "Kagome," he called out from the doorway before walking back out into the darkening sky. I glanced around at the others before shrugging and following after him. It wasn't hard to figure out where he was heading, even if it was rather dark out, there was only one place he would head to when he needed to think.

Sure enough, I found him waiting for me at the bottom of the God Tree. Taking a deep breath, and stealing myself for the screaming match I was sure was to come, I walked up to him and waited for him to start yelling at me. Instead, without a word, he wrapped his arms around me and leaped into the tree. He sat down on one of the higher branches, pulling me tight against his chest, and I could hear his deep breathing next to my ear, feel his body tense and begin to relax.

"What happened Kagome? And I want the whole truth this time. Tell me everything," he demanded as he rested his chin on my shoulder and pulled me closer to him, if it was possible. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and began recounting everything that had happened in the void. From the moment I had awoken in the darkness to the void messing with my mind. Feeling the shard and days of traveling without getting any closer to it. I told him about us finally giving in to the void's demands, without going into any details of course.

I told him about being able to get closer to the shard the next day and realizing that it had been the void's plan all along. About our deal to go back to the way things were once we were outside of the void and the nights that followed. I told him everything I could remember, things I had never wanted to speak out loud and by the end I was crying uncontrollably and apologizing repeatedly. For a long time after I had finished speaking, Inuyasha remained silent, making my worry grow larger by the moment.

But still he did not speak, merely held me to him and rocked slightly, a gesture to comfort him or me, I'm not entirely sure. Just when I thought I would lose what was left of my sanity to the silence, he began speaking softly. "What happens now?" he questioned, his tone clearly voicing how hurt he was. I had heard the tone before, but I never imagined it would have been aimed at me.

"I don't know. I have no idea what I am supposed to do next or how someone in my position would proceed. The only thing I do know is my mother should know. Maybe not all the details, but she should know that she's going to be a grandmother. If you wouldn't mind taking it over, I can write her a note explaining things so you won't have to deal with that.

"I'll be giving her a list of things I will need so you'll have to hang around long enough to bring them back, but I will make sure she doesn't bug you for information. I realize I'm not your favorite person at the moment and I wouldn't blame you for a single moment if you wanted to wipe your hands clean of me after this, but I ask you do this last thing for me, no not for me, for my mother. She doesn't deserve to go another half of a year not knowing what's happened to her daughter, no matter how much you might hate me."

"I don't hate you, Kagome. I have not always been at my best, but you have always been by my side through the good and the bad. What kind of a friend would I be, if I wasn't there for you too? Get the letter ready tomorrow and I'll take as soon as your done. Tonight, let's just stay here. Just let me hold you," he pleaded and I felt myself nodding before giving it any thought. I couldn't help but sigh in relief as I leaned back against him and allowed his warmth to comfort me.

He became silent once again, but I knew he was still awake, still thinking. I could hear and feel his breathing against my ear and his arms occasionally tighten around my waist. I glanced through the tree branches to see the stars twinkling away in the night sky. The very same stars I had seen night after night since I first began traveling through the well. Stars that saw everything that happened beneath the night sky, but remained unchanged by it.

Remained unmoved by the joys or pains endured by the earth's inhabitants after dusk. Stars that no more cared about what I was currently going through than they would if I was a living Buddha or a mass murderer. Tiny balls of gas burning billions upon billions of miles away, twinkling away as if they didn't have a care in the world. Never minding the earth shaking changes in my life, what would become of me now or how I was ever going to make it through this. None of it matter to those millions of stars, it never did.

"Are you going to tell him?" Inuyasha inquired, shattering the silence and bringing my attention back to earth. It took me a moment to figure out who and what he was talking about. Without even thinking, I shook my head silently as I closed my eyes. He seemed about to question my answer before sighing and falling silent once again, apparently accepting my answer.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 12

I never could of imagined the series of events that would start after learning of my pregnancy. Whether it was because there was now going to be a new generation to worry about, because it would be Inuyasha's niece or nephew, or because one of our fighters, myself, would no longer be joining any battles, I am unsure. But the fact remains that within days of my conversation with Inuyasha high up in the God tree, he was stepping up the search for Naraku.

No longer was it the travel around and hope we come across him or some rumor of him while looking for shards, stopping to help any villages that needed us or strangers we met on the way. Though I was left to sit around and wait at Kaede's along with Shippo, they each updated me when they returned after the last battle with the evil hanyou. Each day was pretty much the same: wake up before the sun had even began to rise, eat a quick meal and start tracking Naraku. They ran as fast as their human legs could carry them until lunch, which they ate while sitting on the back of Kirara.

She carried them as fast as she could while Inuyasha ran along side them until dinner, which they stopped for during a quick break. Then it was back to running at full speed until well after the sun had set. Ignoring everyone and everything around them unless it would lead them to Naraku. Each day it was the same, for almost two weeks before they finally picked up his trail. By that time Kouga and his two companions had joined them.

The battle itself lasted for two full days, non stop. By the end of the first day the humans, Sango and Miroku, were already worn out and resting away from the battle. They would reenter toward the end of the second day, but for the most part it was Inuyasha and Kouga fighting that day. Even his demon companions were unable to keep up with them. Toward dawn of what would have been the third day of battle, not long after the humans had rejoined the fight, Sesshoumaru had shown up, sans his group, and joined in the fight.

Too tired to fight his half-brother over who got to kill Naraku, Inuyasha had pulled back to allow his brother to take over. He was already pretty winded and Sesshoumaru was in top form. But that didn't stop him from keeping an eye on the fight, and in a rare moment of cooperation between him and Kouga, they formulated a plan and waited for the best moment to strike. The moment came sooner than they thought as Naraku was already tired from his battle with them and seemingly no match for Sesshoumaru.

Catching his half-brother's gaze, praying he would pick up on what was about to happen, Inuyasha gave a quick nod to Kouga before charging back into the battle. Once in range, a shout of 'Wind Scar' could be heard over the roar of the battle, followed closely by an attack of Sesshoumaru's. Naraku jumped back to avoid the two attacks, placing him right in front of where Kouga was waiting, with no way to defend himself.

Before he even knew what happened, Kouga's claws had ripped a hole in his back, re-leaving him of the almost complete Shikon Jewel. The two Inu brothers quickly swooped in and made quick work of his multi-demon body now that he was no longer able to regenerate. The new day dawned with the death of Naraku, though everyone that had been part of the battle were too exhausted to do much celebrating.

They had re-leaved Kohaku and Kouga of their shards before pushing themselves back to the village before resting. Since Kohaku had not survived the battle, once everyone had rested up, we headed for Sango's village so he could be buried with their family. It wasn't until after we had returned to Edo that we started to wonder what to do about the jewel. A simple wishing the jewel away was the most 'unselfish' wish we could come up with.

It had reentered my body afterwards making me both thankful and worried. Thankful I would still be able to use the well to travel back and forth but worried demons would still sense it, causing our journey to start back over from scratch. But, much to all of our relief, neither Inuyasha or Shippo could sense the jewel. Nor could Miroku and Kaede. For the first time in a few years, we were able to rest easy.

Flashback

"Huh?" I mumbled out loud to myself as I rubbed my eyes and tried to figure out what it was that had woken me up. Glancing out the small window, I quickly discovered that it was before dawn and everyone around me was still sleeping peacefully. Closing my eyes, about to fall back asleep, I felt the sensation again and sat up straight with a gasp.

Glancing down at my stomach, I couldn't help but smile realizing what it was that had woken me up. The baby had kicked. Hearing my name called softly, I glanced up to find Inuyasha staring at me in question. Still grinning like a fool, I gestured him over and placed his hand on my stomach once he was in range. "Just wait," I told him with a smile and watched his face as I waited for the baby to kick again.

It wasn't long before Inuyasha's expression turned to one of confusion and he looked over at me for an explanation. "It's the baby kicking," I told him with a smile as we both felt it once again. "Now if only he or she would stop sitting on my bladder," I complained when I realized nature was calling and began to rise. With Inuyasha helping me to stand, it wasn't long before I was quickly making my way out of the hut.

As I was making my way back toward the hut, I noticed Inuyasha was waiting outside for me. Smiling, I wobbled over to where he was. "Would you be up to filming me some more today? I want my mom to be a part of this as much as possible," I informed him and he nodded in reply before helping me into the hut. I wasn't really so far along that I couldn't get around myself, but Inuyasha seemed inclined to play the mother hen, so I let him.

"Sure, we can start after breakfast. Go ahead and get the fire going, I'll go hunting," he informed me once I was inside the hut and took off without waiting for my reply. Shaking my head at his impatience, I moved to the center of the room and began working on getting the fire going. As I did, my thoughts drifted to another Inu demon and my resolve not to tell him almost shattered. It wasn't fair that he was unable to feel his own child kicking for the first time, but I have no idea how far he would go to erase a strain on his honor. And that is exactly what he would see of him siring a half-demon child.

Thoughts of him made me realize that I still felt like I was within the void. Surrounded by darkness, not an ally around, feeling as though something important is missing. It wasn't hard to figure out what it was I was feeling the absence of. The void being centered around my heart told me it was him my life was missing. Whether because he was the father of my unborn child or because he was himself, I am unsure, but I couldn't let myself dwell on it. I had made my choice and I had to be strong. Stand firm in my decision.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath before wiping away the stray tears that had made their way past my eyelashes. Hearing a noise behind me, I turned to find Inuyasha making his way back into the hut, a fresh kill in his hands. Judging by the look on his face he knew I had cried and I just smiled at his concerned expression. Around me, I could hear the others start to rise and was thankful since I knew Inuyasha would not ask any questions with the others awake.

hr

"Hey mom, something amazing happened this morning," I began as I sat down in front of Inuyasha, who was currently filming me with a video camera, and started rubbing circles on my slightly protruding stomach with my hand. "I woke up this morning to the feeling of the baby kicking for the first time. I wish you could feel it. I think I'm starting to understand all of those little wonders you told me about that come with being a mother.

"And I know this is just the beginning. I find myself unable to wait to find out what's going to happen next. Though, thankfully, the morning sickness has calmed down a bit. Someone should really tell it that it belongs in the morning. Not morning, noon and night. Kaede's been keeping a close eye on me and she says everything is going well. Both me and the baby are healthy. I'm sure you'd rather I be there with all the medical advances, but you can rest assured, I am in good hands here.

"Thank you for the maternity clothes, they are coming in really handy," I told the camera gesturing to the peasant style shirt and stretchy pants I am wearing. "I don't know how I'd ever get by trying to wear clothes from this time. It's hard enough to wear a kimono as it is, but with me becoming even more off balance as my stomach grows, it would be impossible for someone who isn't already used to it. Well that's it for now, I'll talk to you again soon. Give Souta and Grandpa my love. I love you, mother."

After a moment Inuyasha turned off the camera and I noticed his rather serious expression. I looked at him confused for a moment before he nodded his head, gesturing away from the village. I glanced over to the hilltop he had indicated to find someone standing there I never thought I would see again, or at the very least, not this soon. "You want me to get rid of him?" Inuyasha inquired getting my attention and I glanced back to shake my head at him.

"He knows doesn't he? With his eyesight, he can tell right?" I questioned and watched as Inuyasha nodded his head after a moment of hesitation. "Heck he could probably hear everything I said knowing him. No, I'll go talk to him. No point in trying to hide it now," I told him with a smile as he helped me to my feet and I began walking in the direction my guest was waiting.

I was only a few yards away from him when he began speaking. "You're with child," he said, rather than asked, and I nodded my head slightly, unable to look him in the eye. "Were you planning to tell me?" he inquired and I shook my head causing him to let off a soft growl. "It is obviously mine, or did you think I would be unable to tell?" he demanded causing me to flinch.

"I had no intention of telling you because I know how you feel about half-demons. You would not have been thrilled to know what has come about from a time when your actions were not your own. You'd see this pregnancy as a stain on your honor and I have no desire to find out just how far you would be willing to go to remove that stain. Tell me I'm wrong," I practically begged as I finally looked up and caught his gaze.

He glanced off into the forest nearby for a few moments as he remained silent, seemingly thinking, before finally turning back to me. "You intend to keep it?" he questioned and I was torn between wanting to slap him for asking me that and trying to understand it from his point of view, which was not easy. Though I was leaning more toward slapping him as he did not deny my accusations.

"Of course. No matter who the father is, or how the child came about, he or she is still my child. I am not happy about how I became pregnant or by who, but I would never take that out on my unborn child. But I need to know if I need to be constantly looking over my shoulder in fear, do you plan on harming this child in order to restore your honor? What do you plan on doing?" I demanded, not really wanting to know the answer and at the same time praying he wasn't as bad as everyone has always claimed him to be.

He was silent for a long while again as he glanced down at my belly before returning his gaze to my face. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally spoke. "Nothing," he replied before turning and walking unhurried toward the forest. I followed after him with my gaze until he was out of sight and all of the tension left my body. No longer possessing the strength to remain standing, I collapsed to the ground just as I heard Inuyasha calling my name.

He was by my side within seconds asking if I was alright, and I could do little more than nod. "Everything is fine," I finally whispered after a few moments as I leaned back into his arms and cried. Tears of relief that he wouldn't try to kill our child or me for keeping it. Tears of sorrow, knowing his 'nothing' meant more than just in regards to not harming our child. He intended to do nothing at all. And as I sat there crying, feeling Inuyasha's strong arms wrapped around me and pull me closer to his warm body, I felt the void housed within my heart grow a little bigger.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

* * *

Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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AN: For those wondering, this story will have 19 chapters, including the epilogue, so there is only six chapters left after this one.

Chapter 13

After the death of Naraku, it seemed my life never slowed down, never had a moment of peace. There was always something going on to keep me busy and make time seemingly move faster. It wasn't long before we were planning out Sango and Miroku's wedding. They ended up having a small ceremony back at her old village. Besides our group, the only others to be invited were Kaede, who performed the ceremony, and Myoga.

It was the first and only wedding for any of our group's original members. And if anyone deserved to find true happiness, complete bliss, it was those two. Between the two of them they had lost their entire families, a village, watched as a brother died, lived each day in fear of a wind tunnel taking their own life. Had to live, even if for only a little while, with the belief that they were responsible for the death of two people when it went out of control.

Many years later, Miroku had told me what Jaken had almost done while we were trapped within the void. I can not imagine what it was like to believe you were responsible for the death of your friend, willing to give up your life to repay a debt for the death of an enemy. After everything those two had been through, I couldn't have been more happy for them to find love in each other and finally find the happiness that they had more than earned.

It was on the way back from their wedding that I started thinking about my own future. It was always up in the air whether or not I would continue to live here in the past once everything was put right or if I would go back to my own time. I never could decide. I didn't want to lose my friends, my family in this time, not after everything we had gone through together, but at the same time, I didn't want to lose my birth family either. I was selfish, I wanted them both so I never thought about making the decision.

I simply kept putting it off, but fortunately, the decision was made for me. I would soon be giving birth to a half-demon and while the demon blood had never been a problem for me, the same could not be said for everyone else in the future. It was not hard to figure out what would happen if they ever found out about my child. They'd lock my baby up in some lab to be tested on. And I would die before I ever let someone do that to my child.

It was obvious my child would have to live here and I was not about to be separated. So my home would continue to be here, not that I wouldn't go visit my family in the future and planned to bring the baby as well, after Inuyasha checked to make sure it was safe of course. And I told the others of my decision once we had returned to the village, none of them were surprised, all were happy.

Flashback

I had gone into labor slightly before dawn and it lasted well into the evening. Kaede had begun to grow worried that something might be wrong with as long as it was taking, and truthfully it was beginning to worry me as well, but Inuyasha assured us that he could neither sense nor smell any distress from the baby. Though men were normally not allowed in the room while women were giving birth and Kaede had tried to get him to leave, he had insisted that he stayed, if for no other reason than that he knew more about hanyou births than the two of us combined.

We couldn't find fault in his reasoning and ended up allowing him to stay and I was glad we did, him being there to hold my hand was like a huge weight off of my shoulders and allowed me to relax. I am unsure if I would have been able to deal with the countless hours of worry and labor without his comforting presence. Especially since I had felt the presences of a very powerful demon not long after I had gone into labor.

Knowing who it was, did little to calm my shaking nerves as he had spent the entire time just on the edge of detection. While I already knew he was not there to harm our child, the fact only left me wondering why he was there. Refusing to allow the shallow hope of him wanting to be a part of the baby's life, since I already knew that to be untrue, to surface, I could not fathom what had brought him to our little village today of all days.

"We are almost there child, give one more push," Kaede instructed me and as I did as she bid, I squeezed Inuyasha's hand with all of my strength. Had he been human, I'm sure I would have crushed his fingers, but him being who he was, he never made a sound of complaint. Just as I was sure I would pass out from exhaustion, I could hear a wail echoing in the room around me. Too tired to do anything else, knowing Kaede would be cleaning my child and unable to hand the baby over to me yet, I allowed myself to relax back onto the futon and closed my eyes.

Even without being able to see him, I knew it was Inuyasha who began wiping the sweat off of my brow and I couldn't help but smile tiredly at him. Softly I could hear him whisper to me that I had done a good job and to just relax. In the background, I could hear Kaede say something about cutting the cord and answered her before I realized I was doing so. "Let Inuyasha do it, 'he' obviously doesn't want to," I told her, knowing it wouldn't be hard to figure out who 'he' was.

Other then the two of them moving around and the soft cries of my baby, the room became quiet and I found myself starting to drift off. I fought to keep myself awake, the urge to hold my child growing stronger as each second passed, but so was the desire to sleep. I had just about given in when I heard Inuyasha whispering into my ear, "Kagome open your eyes, there's someone who wants to meet you."

A bit groggy, and not entirely sure what he was talking about, I slowly opened my eyes to find Inuyasha kneeling down beside the futon with a bundle of cloth in his arms. A bit confused, due to being sleep deprived and only half awake at the moment, it took me a moment to figure out what it was he was holding. "He's beautiful," I whispered, some how knowing the gender without asking, and Inuyasha's smile confirmed that I was right.

"He is and he's perfect. He just needs a name," Inuyasha told me and laughed softly as the cloth covering his head began moving. Curious I reached my hand up and pulled back the blanket to reveal a small, black dog ear that began twitching in earnest as the cool air hit it. I ran my finger gently across the ear for a moment before replacing the blanket.

"He has your ears," I told Inuyasha as I glanced up and smiled at him before reaching my arms out to him. Inuyasha chuckled softly before handing over my son, making sure I was supporting his head, before moving back to kneel beside the futon again. "Welcome to the world, Inu-Takeshi," I told my son with a smile before leaning over to gently kiss his forehead. He stirred slightly but didn't wake.

"Dog warrior? Fitting for his linage," Inuyasha told me with a smile as he reached over and began caressing his little cheek. I nodded my head in agreement before I felt my eyes began to close once again. "Get some rest," he insisted and with a smile I stopped fighting and allowed sleep to over take me.

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"I guess it's about time I go talk to him," I decided after I had finished feeding Inu-Takeshi the next morning and handed him over to his uncle. I had continued to feel Sesshoumaru's presence through out the night, and would have gone to talk to him sooner, had Kaede not demanded I stay in bed last night. Kissing my son softly on his forehead, as Inuyasha began to rock him, I sent the others a smile and began making my way out of the hut.

It wasn't hard to find Sesshoumaru as he hadn't moved since he arrived the previous morning, and though I was moving much slower than normal, I was standing in front of him in just a few minutes. "You know, you could have come in. I wouldn't have stopped you from being there when your son was born," I told him before giving him the chance to speak, knowing that even if he did plan on talking, it would take him too long.

"I did not wish to be there," he told me as he glanced off toward the hut I had come from before turning his attention back to me. "So it is a son? Congratulations on your first child," he told me, sounding unlike his normal self.

"Yes a son. Thank you. He is perfect and in good health, as his mother I could not ask for anything more. I thought you might like to know that I named him. I chose the name Inu-Takeshi because I thought it would be fitting," I explained to him, for a moment not caring if it matter to him one way or the other.

"Inu? I can not say I am surprised to hear you named your son after my half-brother. I suppose it will be him that will be playing father to your child as well," he replied and I fought the urge to slap him, as well as, correct his misuse of pronouns. Deciding my hitting him could not end well, I opted to take a different approach.

"I did not name him after his uncle, I named him after his grandfather," I informed him and hide my satisfaction at the quick look of shock that shown in his eyes for a moment before his ever stoic mask returned. "And I will be raising him on my own, though the others will help of course, but he will only know a father if his true father decides to show up. I will not lie to my child nor would I make Inuyasha raise another man's son.

"Besides there would be no point in pretending Inuyasha is his father, as it will only take him a few years to realize this is not the truth. They are both half-demons and a human having a child with a half-demon makes a quarter demon, not another half. Besides, I am sure his demonic instincts would know there was something wrong before that. Do not worry Sesshoumaru, the spot of father will always be open in case you decide you wish to fill it," I told him before turning and making my way back toward the village.

I could feel his eyes on my back until I had reached the door of the hut and before I had the chance to open it, his presence was gone completely. Shaking my head at his stubbornness, I opened the door to find Inuyasha holding a sleeping Inu-Takeshi with Shippo glancing over his shoulder to get a better look.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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AN: For some reason when I posted the last chapter for this story, it wasn't added here enough though it was on the other sites, so gonna be uploading two chapters here today. Sorry about the wait.

Chapter 14

I have once said before that the decision of where to live when all was said and done was taken out of my hands and made for me. At the time, I just couldn't imagine just how much so it was. But it wasn't long before I learned that not only was living in the past the better option, it was my only option. This was shown to me the day I tried to take my son home to meet my family. While Inuyasha waited at the bottom, just in case something went wrong, I had jumped into the well with Inu-Takeshi in my arms.

I arrived in the future with empty arms. He wasn't able to use the well with me, thankfully Inuyasha had been there to catch him. Afterwards, we figured the only way to get him there was to put a rosary on him, like Inuyasha's, but seeing as I would have to activate it which would cause my infant son to be slammed into the ground, I decided against the idea. When I went home to tell my family, they were saddened by the news, but agreed with me that it would be better, at the very least until he was strong enough to it.

And though he might one day be strong enough to, I doubted I ever would and as it had to be me activating it, I doubted he would ever meet my family other than on video. So instead of the two of us traveling to the future it ended up being Inuyasha and I going once a week with at least one tape to show them. I wish I would have been able to bring back a tape to show him, but without a way to hook up a VCR it was rather difficult. Instead I took dozens of pictures each trip.

The next two years continued like this with very little variation until one day I arrived to have my mother inform me that my grandfather had passed away the night before. I didn't even know he was sick, not more than usual at least, and so never got the chance to say goodbye. He never got the chance to meet his great-grandson. If I had known it would be the only great-grandchild he ever had, I would have tried harder to find a way.

I guess hindsight really is 20/20. I know I would have done a lot of things different in my life had I known what the future would bring, but there isn't a damn thing I can do about that now, is there? I can't change the past, and yes I realize how strange that sounds coming from someone to traveled through time, but I could make sure I didn't make the same mistake again. I began traveling through the well every day making sure to spend some time with my mother and younger brother.

I finally got up my nerve to put a rosary around his neck and though we took every precaution to make it as painless for him as possible, there were tears in my eyes when I whispered a command, making sure not to use the same on as Inuyasha's. He laughed. He crashed into Inuyasha's stomach, who was laying with him on the ground, and started to giggle. I had sighed in relief only to have him ask me to do it again. I figured he would have inherited his father and uncle's hard heads, but couldn't have imagined how much so.

Flashback:

Today had seemed like countless other, indistinguishable, days. We had just returned from a visit in the future and I was playing with Inu-Takeshi outside of the hut. All around us you could see wives and children waving goodbye to their husbands and fathers as the men in the village headed out to pick this years harvest nearby. I had seen this happen countless times in the years that I had lived in this village, or at least visited it during my travels, and so I was used to it.

Inu-Takeshi, however, was seeing it for the first time. His large eyes watched in fascination, completely forgetting about the ball we had just been playing with, as several of the men waved as they passed us. Shouts of 'be careful dear' and 'come back soon daddy' echoed around us and even before he opened his mouth, I could easily see the question on my son's face. I was half tempted to quickly distract him as he turned to me, blinking his golden eyes at me in confusion. With a soft sigh, I steeled myself before smiling over at him.

"Mommy, why isn't daddy going with them to pick the plants?" he questioned, confusing me for a moment, not sure where he had learned what it was they were going to do. After a moment, I figured he could probably hear others talking about it, far enough away from us that my human ears were unable to pick it up. "Uncle Inu and uncle Miroku are going," he began as he pointed over to where two of them were heading out with the other men, "So why not daddy? Where is daddy?"

Deciding to give myself a few moments to think of what to say to him, I sat down and patted the grass next to me. It didn't take him long before he ran over and plopped down next to me. "The truth is that your daddy is a very important man and his job keeps him far away from the village. He's not here to help with the harvest because he's the only one who can do his job and has to be there," I explained, knowing how pathetic it sounded even as the words left my mouth.

"You mean he's an important demon," Inu-Takeshi corrected causing me to stare at him in confusion. "Me a half-demon, mommy human. Daddy must be demon," he explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Inu-Takeshi, how do you even know what a half-demon is? Nobody's been calling you that have they?" I questioned, already feeling the anger begin to boil to the surface at the thought of someone insulting my son.

"No, Uncle Inu is half-demon. He has my ears, no one else do. No, know any other half-demon. I'm small, not have no see," he explained, once again confusing me until I realized the 'no see' was referring to someone who was blind. Not even three years old yet and he had already figured out so much.

"You are your father's son, you know that?" I asked rhetorically which caused him to look at me like I had grown a second head. "What I mean is that you take after your father. He is incredibly intelligent as well," I told him with a smile before deciding to end our conversation there before he figures out anything more damaging, such as the fact that his father isn't around because he hates half-demons.

Having already figured out that he himself was a half-demon, I doubted it would take long for him to put two and two together. And the last thing I wanted was for my son to realize the reason he hasn't met his father was because he was a half-demon, something he had no control over. Picking up the discarded ball, I stuck my tongue out at Inu-Takeshi and began running away from him. It took him a few moments before he began chasing after me, giggling along the way.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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Chapter 15

Life is always moving forward, propelling you to the next stage in your life. No matter what is happening, or whether you would wish it so, time never slows. If you blink, you could easily miss an important moment, one you will never get back. Life simply continues to go on while you struggle to keep up.

Even when something major happens, you are given no time to adjust, you are simply expected to carry on with the rest of the world. Even for someone such as myself, who has traveled through 500 years of history, time is not a friend. It cares not for my pain, my sorrow, the road blocks that appear on the highway that is my life. Time never ebbed with the death of my grandfather.

Nor did it wane with my mother's. Time cared not for her struggle with cancer, the five years she lived in anguish knowing the inevitable would one day happen, nor for the agony her children suffered knowing there was nothing we could do for her. Time never batted her 'eyes', never blinked, never paused for a single moment to allow us our grief. They say time flies when you are having fun, but that is not the truth. Time simply flies. In times of joy, times of sorrow, times of pain and times of longing, it continuously flies, giving you no reprieve.

And all you can do, your only true option, is to go with the flow. But then again, I have never truly been one to 'go with the flow'. I create my own path, choose my own destiny. I take life by the reigns and set out my own course. I had decided to find a way to bring Souta into the past, even if that meant activating a rosary around his neck, I refused to have our time taken away from us. Apparently my brother and I are more alike than I ever knew.

He too, creates his own path. Wished to follow his own destiny, in modern day Japan. He did not wish to leave his girlfriend or soccer team behind to live in a world he did not know, did not understand, even if it could mean spending more time with me. And truthfully I couldn't blame the kid. I too was unwilling to give up my life here to live in the future with him.

Flashback:

A month had already passed since my mother's funeral and I continued to visit my brother every morning with my son and cry myself to sleep every night. It wasn't much, but it managed to get me through each day, to survive each night. I realized something that I suppose my mind had refused to admit, I would one day do the same to my son. The cause would of course be irrelevant, the fact remains that I will die before my son ever reaches adulthood in demon standers.

And so I swore to myself that I would spend as much time with him each day that was humanly possible. While I knew that he would grieve when that day came, I wanted to leave him with memories enough to fill the rest of his life. So when ever he was sad, he would have many things to think back on, many days filled with love and joy to remember, to help him through the nights I was experiencing right now.

Today was the making of one of those memories and fate decided to drop another bombshell in my lap in the middle of it. Inu-Takeshi, who was nearly seven years old, decided he wanted to have a picnic by ourselves a little ways away from the village. We had finished eating a while ago and I was currently winning a tickle war against him. I had just about gotten him to cry out 'uncle' around his peels of laughter, when we a soft voice called out behind me, "Kagome-san?"

Glancing over my shoulder, expecting to find one of the women from the village waiting for me, I instead found a young woman I did not know. Confused, I took in her appearance, long dark hair, new looking, cherry blossom cover kosode, and bare feet. Glancing back into her deep, brown eyes, I couldn't help but have the feeling I had seen this young woman before. It of course wouldn't surprise me if I had, I met a lot of people during the time we were traveling across Japan.

But something in the back of my mind insisted that, that wasn't enough, that I should know this girl. Taking in her appearance again, I gaged that she was 14, many 15 years old. Even though her feet were bare, her clean hair and skin, along with her new and some what expensive looking kosode, told me she was well cared for. That she had a family. As a thought, a memory tried to make it's way into my mind, I noticed something hanging from her peach colored obi. It was braided hair. Long, silky and silver. A color I had only seen on one person in all my life. Flashing my eyes back up to hers, I whispered one word, one name, "Rin."

"You remember me, Kagome-san," she replied with the same bright smile I had seen on her once chubby, childish face on many occasions. Her baby fat was all but gone now, leaving behind a lean, and beautiful girl in its wake. Her eyes left mine for a moment as she glanced down at the small boy, who had stopped laughing the moment she had spoken, and I watched as she took in his appearance. "He's beautiful," she whispered after a moment as her gaze turned back to mine.

"Thank you," I replied as I finally got my bearings back and rose to my feet, before helping my son to stand. "Inu-Takeshi, why don't you head home before me and let them know we might be having a guest tonight," I instructed and watched as my son seemed to size Rin up, making sure she would be no threat to me, before nodding and running toward home. I watched until he was out of earshot, before turning back to the girl staring after him in amazement. "Not that I mind the visit Rin, but may I ask why you're here?"

"Lord Sesshoumaru is his father isn't he?" she questioned, evading my own as she turned her attention once again to me. After I gave her a slight nod in response, she continued, "I thought maybe he was Inuyasha's at first, but it's the wrong shade of silver, or should I say white." I watched as she fingered the braid at her obi for a moment, seemingly lost in some memory, before she focused back on me. "He never told me he had a child, but Lord Sesshoumaru has never really shared any personal information with me.

"But to answer your question, Kagome-san, Lord Sesshoumaru has decided that I have reached the age to be finding a husband and settling down. Since I reached maturity, he has been unable to leave just Jaken to protect me when he goes off on his own and though he has never said it, I believe I am becoming too big of a burden for him. Lord Sesshoumaru said that he was sure you would take me in, and while I realize that may not sound very thoughtful of him, to just push his burden onto someone else, he would not have sent me here if he did not trust you.

"Very few demons, and almost no humans, have earned even the slightest amount of Lord Sesshoumaru's trust. Though I suppose I understand his reasons a little more clearly now," she told me as she glanced off in the direction Inu-Takeshi had disappeared in. "But if you can not take me in, do not worry, I'm sure I will find some other place to go."

"Nonsense Rin, you have always been welcome with us and I see no reason to change that now. Welcome to Edo," I told her with a smile before picking up the stuff from the picnic and began leading her toward the village. "Just one thing Rin," I began, not bothering to glance behind me where the girl was, "My son does not know who is father is and until Sesshoumaru decides to actually be his father, its not our place to tell him."

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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AN: See my profile for new poll...'Should there be lemons in We are Mates'?

Chapter 16

There is a saying I have often heard in foreign movies, said whenever times seem to get rough, when everything is stacked against the protagonist. A single, infamous line to sum everything up into one pretty little package. I have never truly understood the meaning behind it, simply chalked it up to a difference in culture. But now I find myself unable to comprehend how they could ever see logic, see truth in the saying.

For it is incorrect. They say 'life sucks and then you die', but I wonder if they really believe it themselves. For that is not how it happens. Life may very well suck, but dying would be easier than what truly happens. You are forced to carry on. Have to survive each and every bump in the road, no matter how painful they maybe, no matter how much they make you wish to die. Somehow, someway you are unable to die in peace.

There is always something, someone that chains you to the land of the living. Their presence, their existence forces you to see the light of a new day. Just the fact that they are there prevents you from receiving the death you so wish for. But I find, as the years go by, that my list gets shorter by the day. And I wonder if there will be a day when there is nothing left to hold me to this world. Though with having friends and a son with demon blood, I doubt I will find that peace. They will outlive me and instead will mark me off of their own lists.

I know not which is worse, the thought of marking them off of mine, or them having to mark me off of theirs. Though I suppose it really isn't that complicated for they are not mortal. They should not live a shorter life than that of a simple, human girl. Even one who has lived in a world full of medical advancements such as myself. It would be too cruel a fate for me to have to mark these majestic creatures off of my list.

But for those without demon blood, even ones that should have lived a least a decade longer than me, I am not spared from this fate. What I have never understood is how I can travel though time, face down the worse evil the world has never known without blinking an eye, face terrifying monsters that would have sent the Bogey man running on a daily basis, be thrown into a world of total darkness with only my greatest enemy to keep me company and yet I come out without a scratch.

How can be thrown into hell over and over, only come out stronger for it? How can I, a once normal high school girl, survive being tossed 500 years into the past and instead of hiding away in some dark hole crying for my okaa-san, make lifelong friends that I would give up my life for in an instant and they for me? How can I survive all that this life has thrown at my feet when a single airplane can bring down my brother?

Why does the five years I watched my mother barely holding on by a thread seem like they took forever when compared to the five years I had left with my brother, which seemed to pass in an instant. Why am I, the older sister, forced to bury the last remaining thread that tied me to my home in the future? Why do I receive so many chances in this life when he doesn't even receive one? Why do I have to continue to be the strong one? Why am I always the one left behind? Why does there never seem to be any answers to my questions?

Flashback

After my brother's death I closed up the shrine and I haven't been back. I've made it to the well many times, but just looking into its depths breaks my heart and Inuyasha carries my tear-wrecked body back to my hut. I've already lost count how many times he has done so and I can not even guess to how many times he will do it in the future. But I can not let the past get to me today, today I will be crying for a completely different reason.

Taking a deep breath, I square my shoulders and turn my back to the well as I begin heading back to the village. It is almost time and I can not afford to be late, not today. Today is a day for celebration, a day for joy and when I cry today, they will know it is out of happiness. Today is the day that my 'little' Shippo truly becomes a man and marries the woman that stole his heart. And I can't help but smile as I think back on the first day I met that adorable little demon who stole my own heart. Already I am crying and I see Inuyasha rolling his golden eyes at me.

Smiling through the tears, I hurry to catch up to him and place my hand on his offered arm. "Not a word," I whispered before taking a deep breath and allowing him to lead me to the field the ceremony will be taking place in. Already Shippo is kneeling in his place with Miroku standing behind him, whispering something that made him blush. Knowing Miroku, it isn't hard to figure out what he might have said to him.

Off to my right Inu-Takeshi begins to play a harp, its beautiful music echoing around us, as we all turn to watch Sango leading the bride to her place. Though her head is covered, I can imagine just how beautiful she looks and the tears begin once again. Next to me, I can feel Inuyasha give me a reassuring squeeze, but as strong as he pretends to be, I know it won't be long before his tears join my own. Suddenly I feel him tense up beside me and I glance over at him worried, finding him looking off into the distance. Already knowing what he sees, I turn my attention back to the ceremony as Shippo raises his glass.

hr

The ceremony had been short but beautiful and even now, late into the night, the celebration was still going on around me. I would much rather stay and join in, but there is something I have been putting off for too long and it is time I deal with it. I am, of course, referring to what had caused Inuyasha to tense up during the ceremony. I thought about just ignoring him, but I some how doubted he would be leaving until one of us went to speak with him, and better me than Inuyasha. At least if I want this night to end without a battle.

Lifting the edge of my kimono, to make sure I didn't trip over it, I began making my way over to where I knew he would be, even without seeing him. Catching Inuyasha watching me, I sent him a soft smile to let him know I was fine and continued walking slowly toward my destination. I was in no hurry to have a conversation with him and truthfully I wanted him to know that. Why should I rush to him when he obviously has more patience than me? Besides since I always feel like I am some how waiting for him, it's his turn.

Making my way over the crest of the next hill, I spotted him glancing off in the distance toward where the celebration was taking place. He made no move to look over at me, but even without doing so, I knew he was aware of my presence. "You know, I don't think I will ever understand you. Why drop her off with us if you're just going to watch her life from up here? Doing it with your son is bad enough, but you choose to have her with you. Why do the same thing to her?"

He continued to stare off into the distance and in curiosity I followed his line of sight, but all I could see was too small to make out who they were, though I didn't doubt he could see each one perfectly. "It was no longer safe for a woman of her age to be following me around. It was time she settled down with her own kind so she could have a family. She does not have much time left, it would be wasted if she stayed with me."

"Sesshoumaru it may not seem like a lot of time for a demon, but to humans it's a whole lifetime. She's got what, at least, three decades left in her? That's a long time to humans. I just think it should have been her choice to leave or stay with you, but I won't argue with you on it since she has made Shippo very happy." Pausing I glanced back toward the village where I knew Shippo and Rin were still dancing, even without seeing them.

"You should have been down there. Rin wanted you there. She's talked about you more than her own husband for the last few weeks. Don't just sit on the sidelines and miss out on her life too. You'll regret it Sesshoumaru, even if it takes a few hundred years. Once she's gone, you will never get another opportunity to have her in your life. Take it from someone who knows the frailty of human life, don't let yourself have the chance to regret not spending more time with those that are important to you. There are no second chances."

He was quiet for a few minutes and I began to wonder if he planned on speaking at all when his voice startled me. "She will never have a normal life as long as I am apart of it," he whispered before turning and walking away from the hill we had been standing on. As I watched him go, I wondered if I should think him an idiot for believing his own words or myself for almost believing them as well. Watching until I could no longer spot the white of his clothing through the trees, I turned and began making my way back toward the village.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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AN: We're at the final countdown, only three chapters left to this story including the epilogue! Adding two chapters of The Void tonight. Next chapter of Warriors is not ready yet.

Chapter 17

As each day passes I find that we are moving closer toward the end. As depressing a thought as that might be, I no longer believe tour lives are counting up in years rather counting down the time we have remaining. From the day we are born, we begin to die. Each day that passes is not another day that we have lived, but one less day until we die.

Each event or moment in time that we witness is another point added to our final score. What the final score represents or even means, even I have yet to figure out. Perhaps we are not meant to know the answer. Or perhaps we only find out the answer once our time has run out. Either way I am unsure of what is right and whether I wish to know. But if my theory of all of our points adding up is correct, then I must have a very large final score.

But again, I do not know if that is a good thing or not. If, per chance, the score is to determine whether or not you still have much to experience, or if you have already experienced enough; determining whether or not you should be reborn or meet with the ancestors. If that is true, then I doubt I will live again. Between my life and Kikyou's I have experienced pretty much everything there is and if I have not, I am sure that I have lived more than just two lives.

In my current life, I continue to experience more with each passing day. In the four years since Shippo and Rin married, I have born witness to many things. Including both Rin and Sango joining me in the joy of motherhood. Though my experience in this was truly only a help to one of them, seeing as Sango's children were fully human, my experiences in the future helped with the rest.

The things I was able to teach both of them insure their children, and their children's children, will live long, healthy lives. And hopefully they will continue to pass on that knowledge through the generations so I will have left more of a mark on this world.

I notice as I grow older, even more than the time where my life was in constant danger and each day easily could have been the day I died, I wish to leave something of myself behind. I wish for something to be remembered by other than just the destruction of the evil hanyou, especially seeing as I myself did not take part in the final battle.

I want to leave behind my knowledge, my wisdom, my experiences so that not only am I remembered for many generations to come, but also so I can enrich the lives that come after me. I know not if passing on certain pieces of information, such as better ways to keep oneself healthy, will effect history, or perhaps I should say the future, but I no longer care.

I have already effected much of what was to happen just by being here. Traveling through time killing demons and saving villagers. I am certain I have already changed much of what was to have happened originally, but if it was not meant to be changed, why was I sent here in the first place?

Flashback

Today is Inu-Takeshi's 16th birthday and while all of my friends are celebrating, I notice the rest of the villagers seem more worried as each day passes. As far as I can figure, the older he gets and the more he begins to resemble his father, the more the villagers seem to fear him and whatever it is they believe he will do.

It would seem that the power of my 'trust me' is weakening and I fear there maybe a day when the villagers no longer believe me at all. And I fear that day maybe coming all too soon. Already some of the villagers have begun leaving the village with little to no warning and their farewells are not favorable. It will not be long before more of them leave, each one in a less admirable way than the last.

Perhaps I have simply asked too much of them over the years. Asked them to believe in me once too often without enough proof to back me up. Though the demons in my group have done nothing but protect the people of this village, they have seen many other who revel in striking fear into the hearts of humans.

Though I have sometimes wondered what the fate of the future will be if all of the villagers leave and no one is left to build the shrine, I find that it matters less and less with each new day. I am 34 years-old and have spent a good deal of my life fighting the good fight. I think it's about time I retire, so to speak. I don't mean to say that if I see someone in need of help that I am just going to stand by watching, but that I will no longer go looking for trouble. It is not like they really wanted our help in the first place.

All those years traveling across Japan, risking our lives, helping those in need along the way, I never understood the truth. What Inuyasha had been telling me all along. That, at least for the most part, they did not appreciate nor want our help. Whether it is because we were strangers or because we traveled with those that are 'different' I can not even begin to know. It may have simply been because I, myself, seemed so weird to them.

But the real reason matters not all these years later. And had I to do it all over again, knowing what I do now, I would not change things, but the future beginning today is a different matter all together. Truthfully, above all else, it is the people of this village practically shunning us that hurts the most. We have risked our lives many times over in order to protect them and have spent the most time with them and yet they are no different then the others.

All this time I thought it was our past actions and words I have spoken that forged our alliance with the villagers, but it seems it was just the grace of Kaede that kept them from revolting against us. So to speak anyways.

But with her passing many years ago, there is nothing left to hold their apprehension at bay and the fragile walls holding their hostility at bay have begun crumbling. Perhaps if I had noticed it early something may have been done, but it is too late now. Soon only those of our group will remain and I find I no longer have the energy to care.

As I look at my son, I find the only thing I care about now is his continued safety and perhaps one day complete happiness. I know he urns for his father, I can see it in his eyes and unspoken words, but I am afraid this is one battle I can not win. I have already tried to explain to Sesshoumaru that are son is not the only one missing out, but my words have no effect on the stoic demon lord. Not that, that any surprise to me.

I will continue to do all that I can to insure Inu-Takeshi's life is filled with love and laughter, but it would seem that there are some things that even the great 'Shikon no Miko', can not change. I pray that this is not one of them, but as of yet, there has been nothing to show that my prayers have been answered. And deep down in the depths of my heart, I do not truly believe they will ever be.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

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Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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AN: Two chapter to go!

Chapter 18

Flashback

My name is Kagome Higurashi and I am 85 years-old. I have lived a long, long life especially when compared to others these days. I no longer consider this to be a time removed from my own as I have spent most of my life here. It was here that I grew into a woman, became a mother and transformed into an elder. It was here that most of my happy memories were born, as well as my sad ones.

I have lived far too long and I know my time is coming to an end. I am not sadden by this knowledge, I am human and it was always a matter of time. I have watched enough passing of my friends to know that I do not wish to live to see another. Over the years I have witnessed the passing into the next life of every person I have ever loved who did not house even the smallest amount of demon blood in their veins.

And I am relieved that I will not have to go through it again. To know that the next tears shed would be over me rather than from me. They say demons are blessed with long lives, but I feel it is more of a curse. I have already watched as two generations have died, whithered away into nothingness and I pity those that will continue to do so. I think I finally understand why demons and humans should never come together.

It would be cruel to the demon to watch as their friend or lover aged and left them, long before they look any older. To be able to grow old with someone is a beautiful thing. I saw this with Sango and Miroku. I have often wished for the same, but it wasn't meant to be. You know how they say that it is better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved?

I don't agree. I have loved, full heartily and I have refused to let myself love, knowing it could never be, and it hurt far less to not love. Had I let myself love the one my heart ached for, the pain, knowing that love would have never been returned, would have been far worse. But then again, I have lived most of my life feeling a void within my own heart.

Whether I allowed myself to love or not, is really not important as the one I might have loved, would never love me back. That void, it ate away at my heart, my soul until the point that I was no longer sure I could even love anymore. I don't blame you though. You did as you desired and what was best for you, I merely did the same. Or at least that was what I thought at the time.

Truthfully I will never know which way would have been better, never absolutely knowing what your answer would be, or hearing the rejection from you. But the answer would have still been the same. I know that now even as I knew it then. But I am getting off topic. You see, this has nothing to do with whether or not I loved you, whether or not you might have ever loved me, or anything of the sort really.

This is about our son. As I have said, I have watched many of my loved ones die and I will be next. Though he maybe 67 years-old, by demon terms he is still young. He has Inuyasha and Shippo to watch over him, but he needs his father. More now than ever before. He will soon lose me and he has never known you. You've already missed out on so much Sesshoumaru, as has he. I may never understand what has kept you away all of these years, but it's time you put that behind you.

Your son needs you, Sesshoumaru. He will need someone to help him get through losing me and I don't know if the others are going to be in any better shape than he will. In the time he will need me the most, I will not be able to be there for him and all I can ask is that you will be. We both know how you feel about half-demons and I am sure that it is at least part of the reason that's kept you from knowing your son, but he is still your blood.

He is still, and will always be, your first born son. Whether by our choice, or some outside hand, he is our son. And I ask, all I ask, is that you be there when he needs you. Let him know who you are. Prove to him that all of the times I told him how great his father was, that I was not lying. I know you may hate me for the past, for putting this on you now and I know you might very well wish to kill me, I'm afraid time will beat you to that.

But as much as you may hate me, despise the void for what it had done to you, don't take it out on him as you have done all these years. He did not choose to be born to us, to be born a half-demon. No more than we choose what happened in the void. He has been a blessing to me in my long life, the only good thing to come out of that dark place. And all he has ever asked for was to know who his father was and I have been unable to tell him.

It wasn't my place, but it is yours. My time is short Sesshoumaru, all I can pray is I finish writing before I am called to meet my maker. I wrote this so you could know your son. So you could know more about me and the time since the void. It didn't just change me while I was there, I have been forever changed and I am not entirely sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. All I know is that the time spent with you has changed my life.

I have often wondered if the void has remained with you as it has me, but I could never find the words to ask. The void lives within my heart, a missing piece to make me whole. An emptiness that cries out, that begs to be filled. The void follows our son. The missing piece of his life, his soul is his father. And I believe my missing piece was you as well. I have wondered, and wonder still even at this moment, if you too did not feel a void. As though we were missing from your life.

I shall end this before I start to sound like a crazy, old woman. I have never asked you for anything, I have never kept your son away from you, well at least not since you found out I was pregnant. And even then I was simply afraid of your reaction. But I ask you now, I beg you even, fill that void in our son's life. Let him know his father. Be there now, now when he needs you the most. Now that I will be gone.

Yours truly,

Kagome Higurashi

hr

Laying down the almost completely dried out feather pen, Kagome rubbed her worn, tired eyes as a large yawn split her face. Closing her dulled, brown eyes, she allowed her weakened powers to spread out around her, searching for a presence she was sure to be there. Though her powers were not what they once had been, and a simple search now completely drained her of energy, she was still able to find the one she was looking for. With a slight smile adorning her weathered face, Kagome rose from her spot at the table and picked up the large, leather bound book.

It wasn't perfect, she knew, but it would be able to get its job done and that was all that mattered to her at that moment. Taking each step slowly, carefully, afraid of breaking her hip again as she had just a few years ago, Kagome made her way toward the door of her hut. The old, warped floor boards creaked under her feet reminding her that they were both getting too old. As she made her way out of the hut and into the bright sunlight, she closed her eyes against the assaulting, burning rays of the sun. Once again, as she had many times during the last month, Kagome wondered if it would not be better to have him come to her rather than the other way around.

But she found herself unwilling to look weak in his presence, even after all these years. She refused to give him another reason to look down on her simply because she was human. To this day, as she had been her entire life, Kagome was proud of who and what she was. She may have come here as nothing more than a simple, human girl, but she proved time after time that there was very little a simple, human girl could not do. She stood off against demons and half-demons that would have sent other humans or even other demons running in fear.

She landed herself in a world completely unknown , all alone, and managed to not only thrive but to leave her mark in the hearts of countless friends and allies. She overcame everything life had sent her way with her head held high and she knew she would do it all again in a heart beat. She was a simple, human girl but at the same time, she was so much more. Even if certain people refused to see it.

After finally getting used to the sun, Kagome opened to eyes to glance around at what was left of the worn down village. The once thriving town had fallen to ruin in the last few decades. The villagers all having died in wars or moved away and Sango and Miroku's children and grand children having migrated to the old slayers' village had left Kagome as the only full human still around. The only other occupants were Inuyasha, Inu-Takeshi, Shippo and his children. And neither the demon nor the half-demons had any desire to protect the upkeep of the village. It had been left up to Kagome until her arthritis ladened hands were no longer able to do the work that was required.

Now the village sat quietly, almost a ghost town, that had people staying away in fear, spreading rumors of human-eating demons and vengeful spirits roaming around. But Kagome paid them little mind. This was her home, her only home left and even as the years warped the wood, weeds overtook the gardens and one by one the villagers all left, she still took pride in her home. To outsiders it looked like nothing more than old, rotted buildings waiting to be torn down, out of control vines and other greenery climbing and clinging to everything they could reach, a lost cause of a village.

But to Kagome, it was her world. This was where she arrived when she was pulled through the well all those years ago. It was here that she met Inuyasha and Kaede. It was here that her journey started that lead her to meet everyone else. It was here that she had a safe haven during the long years of traveling across the land in search of jewel shards. It was this village that she always knew that when she returned to it from the future, she would find her friends waiting for her.

It was here that she gave birth to her one and only child, where he took his first steps, spoke his first word. It was in this village that she watched as new lives were brought into this world and old ones left. Where she lived and learned and loved and lost. And she knew it was here that she would die and she could think of no better place.

Wiping the few stray tears out of the corner of her eyes, Kagome turned her attention back to her destination. Taking a shaky breath, she began slowly walking toward the hill she knew he would be waiting on, the same hill he had always used. So much in fact, that the village children had dubbed it the 'demon hill' many, many years ago. With each step that brought her closer to him, Kagome could feel the dried out grass scratching the bottom of her feet and for a second, wondered if it would not be a better idea to go back for her shoes, but seeing that she was already about half way there, she decided against it.

She wasn't entirely sure she could even make the distance with as weak as she was feeling, but she knew she wouldn't make it if she had to go back for something. And besides, sore feet was the least of her worries at the moment. Firm in her decision, Kagome continued on until she was standing at the bottom of the hill, looking up into his golden eyes. Unlike herself and the village, he remained unchanged. The years had done nothing to age his appearance, not that she was really expecting them to, and she was already used to it with the other demons she knew, but it was still a sight to see.

To see him standing there, looking exactly the same as he did the first time she met him. The same eyes, the same silky hair, the same clothing, the same stoic look gracing his beautiful face. Releasing the breath, she wasn't aware, she had been holding, Kagome began the slow trek up the hill. While he made no move to help her, if he felt any impatience he did not let it show. He simply waited unmoving until she was standing directly in front of him, holding out the leather-bound book.

"Read this, Sesshoumaru," she instructed before a brilliant smile lit her face and she gave him the most respectful bow she could at her age. Relaxing her shoulders, Kagome turned and began making her way back down the hill, able to feel Sesshoumaru's eyes following her every move. She knew he could see the slight limp in her walk, see her cringe with each painful step, but she was too tired to care or try and hide it. Soon she would be back in her bed and could get some rest, that was the only thing that matter to her now that her job was done.

Sesshoumaru watched until she was about half way back to her hut before turning to leave, but before he had the chance to take a single step, he caught sight of her collapse out of the corner of his eye. He watched her for a few moments as she lay on the ground, waiting for her to pick herself back up as she had always done. But she didn't move and as he watched her, he realized she didn't breath. Sesshoumaru strained his ears to pick up the sound of her beating heart, a noise that had gotten on his nerves many times in the past when he had tried to kill her only to hear it keep on pounding in his ears, but the annoying sound never reached him.

Swallowing hard, Sesshoumaru thought over his options for a moment before making his way toward her prone body. With his long strides it didn't take long before he was standing over her, the signs of her passing even more prominent upon closer inspection. He stood silent, staring at her lifeless form for a few tense moments before finally gracefully lowering himself to wrap her frail body in his strong arms.

Carrying her much in the way a husband would carry his new wife into their home, Sesshoumaru began slowly making his way toward her weather worn hut. Arriving at the doorway, he ducked under the over hanging curtain. It did not take long before the stench of decaying wood and long cold hearth ashes assaulted his sensitive nose. Being the demon he is, he simply ignored them as he scanned the small room.

Most of the items he found were worn with age and covered in a thick layer of dust. In one corner of the room he found, what he assumed to be, her bedding and closed the short distance to it in a few steps. Leaning over, he gently laid Kagome upon her bed. A strand of gray hair falling across her paling face and he reached out to brush it away before realizing what he had been about to do and pulled his hand away.

Hearing a noise from the entrance of the hut, Sesshoumaru took a quick sniff of the air easily determining who had entered the room behind him. Before he could open his mouth to speak, a figure rushed to his side paying no attention to anything in the room save for the still figure lying before them.

"What happened?!" the voice of his son demanded of him, but as Sesshoumaru glanced over at his stricken expression, he did not believe he would hear what was said even if the question was answered. Glancing over his shoulder, he gave his half-brother a look that clearly stated he did not know how to proceed, even if such an admission was appalling to himself.

Quickly understanding what was going on, Inuyasha nodded to the doorway behind himself before stepping back out into the open. Knowing, without having to turn around, that his half-brother would follow. Sure enough, not more than a few moments after Inuyasha had stepped outside, Sesshoumaru did as well and in silence they walked a short distance away from the hut. "What happened?" Inuyasha finally inquired softly after a few more moments of silence.

"She came out to give me a book and on her return she collapsed. She had already passed when I went to check on her. As to what has claimed her life, I would not know. As I have no desire to, I know little of what ails humans," Sesshoumaru explained.

"Book? What book?" Inuyasha questioned after a moment, wondering what could be so important to Kagome for her to risk leaving her bed. She had been ailing for some time and it was likely that too much strain on her body would worsen her condition.

Reaching into his haori, Sesshoumaru removed the book he had been given and held it out for his half-brother. Curious, Inuyasha reached for the book and began flipping through its pages. Understanding dawned on him and he couldn't help but smile at what his long time friend had done. Handing the book back to his brother he thrust his hands into his sleeves, just as he has always done, and watch as Sesshoumaru put the book back where it had been.

"I'll explain things to Inu-Takeshi once he has had the chance to calm down. You can stick around if you want, but I doubt this would be a good moment for him to meet you for the first time. But either way, make sure you read that book, I think it will do you some good," Inuyasha told him before turning and beginning to make his way back toward the hut. Sesshoumaru watched him go for a few moments before heading away from the village.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


	19. Epilogue

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

* * *

Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

* * *

AN: Hope you enjoy the last chapter for The Void.

Epilogue

"The day has finally arrived," Inuyasha informed his resting companion as he watched the young girl in front of him searching for her lost pet. "Wake up or you will miss it," he warned as he shook him awake, almost knowing him off of the branch he had been resting on. Far below them, the girl paused her search to glance up into the tree wondering what had caused the branches to shake as there was currently no wind blowing. Seeing nothing of interest, she went back to her search as the two men in the tree breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close," Inuyasha whispered as he continued to watch the girl below them.

"What would happen if she was to spot us?" his companion wondered as he followed the girl's movements below with his eyes. Inuyasha remained silent, gesturing for him to do the same, as the girl continued to get closer to an old, rotting well house. As they watched in silence, they could feel the power rising up from the depth of the dried up well.

After a bright flash of light they could no longer feel the girl's presence in this time. "I'm not entirely sure, Inu-Takeshi, but Kagome has always said that if any of us ever met her in this time, that it might change the course of history and things that should have happened, needed to even, might be altered. She can never know we are here, we can not warn her of what is to come and there is no telling the damage we might do."

"I do not understand, uncle, why would it be wrong to warn her of the things that go wrong? Such as telling her when her grandfather will die so she is able to spend more time with him. He died a natural death so it is not if mother could change it," Inu-Takeshi insisted confused.

"You're right, she couldn't change the fact that he dies, but she could change the amount of time she spends with him and while this may sound like a good thing, there is no telling what she would not be in the past to do while she is here. What if she chooses the day she is meant to be sucked up into the void as a day to come home? You would never be born and as much as she would have loved to spend more time with him, she would never choose it over loosing you.

"Kagome has always made it very clear not to try and change what has already happened, there is no way to know if the out come would not be worse than what it already was."

"But did mother not already change what was meant to be by going into the past herself?" Inu-Takeshi questioned and Inuyasha couldn't help but smile. It was a question he himself had asked her many times in their lives together.

"I can only tell you what your mother told me. That because it was not her choice nor doing that brought her into the past the first time, there was nothing she could do about it. By the time she realized she may be effecting history, she had already put in motion too many things that needed to be put right before she could leave forever. And she once told me that she believe she was meant to go back in time, because you will notice I am not pinned to the tree beneath us. There are only two people in this world that could have released me, your mother and Kikyou. If I wasn't still bound when she went back the first time, she said it meant that she was always meant to go back and release me."

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"I remember this day as if it was just yesterday," Inuyasha commented with a slight smile as he watched Kagome try repeatedly to jump into the well only to land on the bottom with a slight thud rather than being transported back in time. As they watched, Kagome finally gave up and climbed to the lid of the well one last time. Sitting beside the opening, Kagome glanced down into its depths as she began crying.

Beside him, Inuyasha could feel his nephew's eyes on him and knew what the unasked question on his mind was. "I had been worried that it was getting too dangerous for her to remain and sent her through the well without the jewel shards before blocking it with a large tree. Eventually Shippo dropped the chuck of jewel she had down into the well and it was able to go to her side on its own. She managed to come back after a while and boy was she pissed," Inuyasha told him with a laugh as they watched Kagome make her way toward the house, grumbling about 'stupid demons' under her breath. Inuyasha silenced the laughter that threatened to spill from his lips as she passed beneath them.

"What happened when she returned to the past?" Inu-Takeshi wondered after hearing Kagome slam the front door as she stormed into the house.

"Same thing that always happened. Together we were able to stop the demon and afterwards she yelled at me for hours. It made my ears ring for a few days," Inuyasha joked as he thought back on the memory with a smile.

* * *

"You have come through the well again uncle," Inu-Takeshi informed him as he gently shook his uncle awake. "Are you certain he can not detect us? He has looked right at us every time he has come through the well," he mentioned yet again in worry.

"I am sure. Our scents are masked and we are hidden, he probably just gets the feeling he is being watched. Do not worry, if he decides to investigate we will be long gone before he ever gets close enough," Inuyasha assured him before the bellowing of Kagome's grandfather could be heard coming from the house below. In the branches around them, the previously undisturbed birds scattered to the wind at the noise.

"I see I have just informed them of your existence," Inuyasha explain with a cringe, remembering how the old man's voice had hurt his sensitive ears far worse than Kagome's ever did.

"Great-grandfather does not sound happy. Was he so displeased with my existence?" Inu-Takeshi whispered as they continued to wait.

"No, Inu-Takeshi, this had nothing to do with you yourself, simply that Kagome had not been married. Her grandfather had always been rather old fashion. What he was upset about was the fact that his only granddaughter, whom he had always hoped would follow his footsteps and become a shrine priestess, who, as far as he knew, wasn't even dating someone became pregnant," Inuyasha explained. A moment later there was another loud scream from below.

"I just informed him that I was not the father," Inuyasha continued to explain as Grandfather Higurashi's voice continued to bellow from the house below. "And now I have told him who your father is. Now wait for it," Inuyasha joked with a smile as he pointed to the front door. After a few moments, the front door was thrown open followed closely by a flying Inuyasha. As the two in the tree glanced back at the doorway, they found the grandfather dusting off him hands. He glared at the younger Inuyasha for a few tense moments before heading back inside and slamming the door behind him.

"He blamed what happened on me, said I didn't do my job of protecting Kagome. When I cam back the next time, he had already calmed down and realized it was no one's fault and was anxious to meet his great-grandchild. Do not take his reaction to heart, none of this was ever about you. All at once he learned his granddaughter had become a woman, that at least for the time being she was unable to return to them and, I think, what scared him the most was that this was just another reason, in a long list, that Kagome might choose to stay permanently in the past."

* * *

Inuyasha and Inu-Takeshi watched as, a slightly older, Kagome paused in the doorway of the old well house to glance back at the shrine. Even from their position in the God Tree, they could easily spot the tears falling from her eyes. "Goodbye," she whispered before turning and jumping into the dried up well for the last time.

"Twice I have born witness to her life and it still seems too short. But your mother lived one hell of a life. She experienced things people never could have dreamed of. She used to say that her life was like a work of fiction, things that she had only read in stories, she was living. And that she thanked the Kami everyday that she was able to be a part of it. Out of everything she accomplished in her life, she was most proud of you.

"I hope you know just how much she loved you. You were her entire world, her hope, her dreams. She wanted nothing more than to watch you grow into a good man and I know somewhere she is smiling down at you, knowing her greatest dream came true," Inuyasha told him as he wrapped his arm around his nephew's shoulder and pulled him closer.

"Uncle I think it's time I be told the true. I know mother did not want you to tell me, saying it was up to him to do, but I think we can both agree that after almost 500 years, if he hasn't wanted to know me yet, he never will. But I have the right to know who my father is," Inu-Takeshi insisted, not bothering to glance over at his uncle.

"I was wondering how long it would take before you couldn't stand not knowing. But Inu-Takeshi, me telling you will not change anything. Knowing who he is will not make him appear, but you are right, you have the right to know. You know how you have always considered me your uncle because Kagome and I were so close? That is not the only reason I am your uncle. Your father is my half-brother Sesshoumaru. He is a demon lord that ruled over the West.

"He is strong and fearless. And not even loosing one of his arms in a battle with me ever slowly him down. As much as I have hated him my whole life, he is not really a bad man. He is simply too set in his ways, too proud and stubborn to realize that even he makes mistakes. When I was born our father, the great dog-demon general, lost his life protecting my mother and me. My brother could only see it as a weakness. He felt that I was nothing more than a stain on our great blood line.

"He was still young when he took over the West and how he saw it was that our father thought I was more important than he was. He left my brother when he needed him only to lose his life at the hands of a human, when he had already been wounded in battle. My brother spent over 200 years thinking me nothing more than a bastard half-demon. And then he was sucked up into the void.

"His actions were no longer his own and when all was said and done, he felt he was forced to make the same mistake as our father. He had spent a good deal of his life hating me for what I am and I don't think his pride would allow him to change his mind. I may not condone his actions, but I understand them. I spent most of my life alone, not trusting anyone. Thinking friends would simply slow me down, that they weren't needed. It took a long time for me to change my ways and that was only because I had your mother in my life.

"I think if he had been around her more, she would have changed him too. I know that somewhere inside him, whether he knows it or not, your father loves you. You may not know it, but he had been there every step of the way. He has watched you grow from just out of sight since the day you were born. And you have met him once. Sesshoumaru was there the day your mother died.

"But it is getting late and I would like to visit her grave before we leave. If you'd like, I can tell you stories of your father on the way home," Inuyasha told him before jumping of of the tree and making his way to the other side of the shrine, where hidden deep within the over growth was a single grave marker. Inu-Takeshi watched him go for a few moments before jumping down and following after him.

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Sesshoumaru watched from the shadows as the two men walked away from the grave before making his way over to it. Though the name was worn off with time, he knew who was buried there. He had been watching from the tree line when Inuyasha, Inu-Takeshi and Shippo had buried her all those years ago. Unable to think of anything to say, he merely stared down at the grave marker for a few minutes before turning and following after them. And as he had done for the last 500 years, Sesshoumaru watched his son's life from the side lines.

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AN: I'm sure the main question on your minds at this moment is 'will there be a sequel?', answer: yes!. As far as time line goes, I can only tell you it will be after Mates. Though I have added a little preview below, it's only the summary, but at the moment I do not have any of it written and so can't give you anything else. I am still trying to come up with a name for this story and so far my best is 'the void continues' which just sucks, so if you have an idea leave a review or send me a message. If I use your title, you will get full credit, it will be posted on the first chapter, and the story will be dedicated to you. :)

I hope you enjoyed this story and if you do not like the ending, I'm sure you will be happier with the sequel. For those waiting on We are Mates, I still have to finish the last chapters of Warriors, just remember it will only have 24 chapters, it will end at 6:00AM.

Sneak Peak! Sequel summary:

It only took him 500 years, but Sesshoumaru finally understands that he chose the wrong path. Now he will do anything to change the course of history, including seeking the help of the most inconceivable of allies. Join him on his journey to set right his mistakes in hopes of dissolving the void within his own heart.

AN: As always I hope you enjoyed this story of mine and I am both happy and sad that it is over. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask. Happy reading everyone.

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Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.


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